The Third Cause of Stress and Disease

Inflammation

The body will only shift from normalcy (health) in response to a stress. Normalcy for the body is a state called homeostasis, or balance. If you are in good physical balance, you can take a fair bit of stress. But, once shifted off balance, your ability to endure stress becomes less and less.

Think about this from a purely physical standpoint. Let’s say that I talked you into letting me punch you in the shoulder as hard as I can. If you agreed, you would probably position yourself in a fashion that increases your center of balance. You would widen your stance, perhaps lean into the forth coming “stress,” and maximize your stability. And, you might be able to take my punch. I was a golden gloves boxer for several weeks in high school however, so I wouldn’t take me up on this challenge.

Point being, stress shifts us from center, and if you knew you were going to be enduring a great stress, your best asset would be a strong center.

Inflammation is my third stressor, and my third cause of imbalance. These imbalances lead to every known condition and symptom you have ever heard of, so this is important.

Inflammation is familiar to us. Time magazine and Newsweek have both done front cover articles on the topic of inflammation. We have all experienced acute inflammation with an injury, such as a sprained ankle.

Inflammation consists, in part, of hormone like chemicals that function as a message to your nervous system that the body is sick or in danger. It’s that simple…inflammation = sick or danger. Sick or danger to the brain means activating our stress response. Either get the immune defenses MOVING…which actually puts us in bed…OR…get the heart (oxygen) and energy MOVING…which puts us into overdrive. This is the familiar fight or flee response.

So, if you are inflamed, your physiology, your internal environment, is stressed out. And you can’t walk away, go for a drive, or zone out in front of the TV to avoid this stress…it’s inside you, and goes wherever you go…including to bed with you.

It is this type of stress that has the greatest consequence to our health. A fight with your spouse is NOTHING in comparison when taken to the cellular level. With inflammation, your cells are afraid of dying. This ignites a hardwired neurological response, altering every function you can think of…hormones, digestion, circulation (why do you think some blood pressure meds block adrenaline?), brain function, and immune function…as well as the normal process of healing and repair.

So, where does this inflammation come from? The quick answer is diet (inflammatory foods), infections (many infections are relatively quiet compared to the flu or common cold), and toxicity (detox nutrients, along with hormone products are the most commonly prescribed in our office).

It is a very complex system, with unfamiliar names, so it would probably be more confusing to try to describe the actual processes and chemicals, unless you want to go to medical school, but there is a simple way to see if you are inflamed…there is a diagnostic lab test, called C-Reactive Protein (CRP), which is gaining popularity, so you may have heard of it…that is a blood marker (identifier) of inflammation.

This is so easy and inexpensive to test, there is no reason why anyone with a chronic condition should NOT know their CRP levels, or anyone at all for that matter. Mine is under 1…that is the ideal level for de-stressing your body. When you get higher than one, the lab report TELLS YOU, right on the paper, that your risk of death is increased!

CRP levels are far more important than cholesterol numbers, but with the discovery of Statin drugs, and the potential of profit, millions in advertising dollars have made it clear that you need to know your cholesterol levels.

CRP can ONLY be treated nutritionally, (short of taking Prednisone, which is a very dangerous drug), so you don’t hear as much about it unless you actually read what researchers are saying about it. And researchers are shouting (in effect) that this is the most valuable, most critical number you should know, if you desire health and longevity, or freedom from disease and pain.