How the foods we eat can cause chronic inflammation and pain

Did you ever wonder why your chronic pain never goes away? Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications work for a while, but eventually the pain and inflammation return. What if the inflammation you are experiencing is caused by the foods you consume.

What is inflammation?

According to WebMD, “inflammation is a process by which the body’s white blood cells and substances they produce protect us from infection with foreign organisms, such as bacteria and viruses.”

The description of inflammation also goes on to explain how the body’s immune system can trigger an inflammatory response even in the absence of an infection or foreign bodies. This response is often associated with the terms “autoimmune” and “disease” and includes the arthritis family, and joint or musculoskeletal pain in the lower back and neck. Then we have the infamous “fibromyalgia” condition still trying to be understood by the medical community.

The most interesting statement made by WebMD is that the “body’s own protective immune system causes damage to its own tissues” and “the body responds as if normal tissues are infected or somehow abnormal.” Hmmm….. These are key statements at the core of re-evaluating the role inflammation plays in our health and pain reduction.

Britannica.com states the purpose of inflammation is to localize and remove anything that could cause further injury and remove any damaged tissue preventing the body from healing. Increased blood flow to the injured area brings white blood cells along with other fluids and proteins required for repair and removal of waste or damaged tissue.

One incredible insight shared by Britannica is the fact that a malfunctioning regulatory mechanism in the inflammatory response can lead to tissue destruction and the inability to removed damaged tissue. Britannica also states that an “inappropriate immune response may give rise to a prolonged and damaging inflammatory response.”

In other words, the inflammation response mechanism can cause more inflammation which leads to further chronic conditions that are self-sustaining. The injury could be long gone, but the inflammatory response has continued to feed itself because it is, in fact, the new source of injury.

Symptoms of inflammation:

The main symptoms of inflammation include redness or swelling in the affected area to the point of pain and stiffness as the inflammatory response tightens and hardens over the associated area. If inflammation persists, you could experience flu-like symptoms, fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, and muscle stiffness.

Even as early as 1st century AD, Roman medical practitioners looked for redness, heat, swelling, and pain as indicators of inflammation and an underlying physical trauma or injury. Redness was caused by an increase in blood flow followed by heat escaping through the skin. Natural chemical mediators in the inflammatory process could also lead to an increase in a fever-based heat.

There is also a unique relationship between swelling (called edema) and pain in the injured area. When fluids start to accumulate outside of the blood vessels, swelling will start to distort the surrounding tissue and cause the sensation of pain. In other words, tightness of the tissues is experienced as pain.

Understanding chronic inflammation:

Another insight by Britannica worthy of highlighting is the explanation of chronic inflammation as either a continuation of the original injury or as an independent response due to the introduction of a foreign material to the body that cannot be removed by the normal healing process.

Think about that last statement for a moment. Chronic inflammation can be caused by substances the body is unable to remove or eliminate. While we usually consider foreign substances as something like a wood splinter or a piece of metal, we should also consider any foods the body cannot process completely.

Unprocessed food substances become a toxin:

In other words, any substances not processed during food digestion is considered a foreign substance by our body’s immune system, and inflammation can result from an accumulation of unprocessed substances following the consumption of certain foods.

For example, if your body can only process 10% of calcium intake from dairy products, the remaining calcium must be moved into the correction mechanism for elimination. Although our bodies are generally designed to process and eliminate calcium, was it also designed to do the same thing when there is an overwhelming accumulation of calcium settling into every low laying area of our body like sediment in a river?

At what point is a seemingly harmless substance like calcium considered to be a foreign substance in which the body cannot eliminate? We consider sodium chloride or salt a toxin to the body when consumed in large quantities, so shouldn’t we also consider all other substances a toxin when it has accumulated beyond the ability to eliminate? Please keep in mind that the term “toxin” is being used here to describe a substance triggering a toxic response by the body’s immune system.

Theory on food-based inflammation:

Based on the information presented in this article, we invite you to consider the factors involved with food-based introduction of toxic substances into the body which eventually leads to chronic inflammation. Some bodies are better at processing certain substances than others, and some bodies are completely intolerant to certain substances altogether.

Based on these definitions of the effects of inflammation on the body from reputable sources, it is no wonder our bodies are overwhelmed with chronic inflammation to the point where modern pharmaceuticals, physical therapy, and traditional medical intervention like surgery leads to even more inflammation and injury.

It’s time to stop hitting the snooze button on the inflammation alarms because contrary to popular belief and the inability for “anti-inflammatories” to reduce inflammation, there are solutions available to completely remove inflammation naturally so that your body can heal the right way.

Full disclaimer:

The author of this article and the business being represented is not associated with a medical professional. We cannot diagnose a medical condition. Our information is partially based on theories gained from our own practitioner experiences in addition to sources available to the general public. Not all of our theories are based on scientific research, although we do cite formal documentation where appropriate. It is our intent to provide thought-provoking discussions outside of the scientific norm which is where true discoveries reside. 

You should always discuss any information provided by our articles with your medical professional prior to taking any action or change to your current medical treatment. Please take what you need and leave the rest behind. 

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/arthritis/about-inflammation#3

https://www.britannica.com/science/inflammation