What are some of the signs and symptoms that you may have chronic inflammation?
One of the most common ones is chronic pain—chronic knee pain. chronic back pain, chronic headaches, chronic sinusitis, etc.
These are all signs that your body is inflamed.
Chronic brain fog is very common.
Signs and symptoms of brain fog include forgetting where you put your keys, forgetting a person's name that you just met two minutes ago, and the inability to think clearly and intelligently.
Sleep issues are another symptom—the inability to sleep uninterrupted, going to bed tired and waking up tired, disturbed sleep patterns, etc.
For whatever reason, you’re not sleeping a full six to seven hours of uninterrupted sleep, and sleep is truly something that we have to prioritize if we are going to get healthy.
Another common sign and symptom is excess belly fat.
Body mass index over 25 is a flagrant foul.
The adipocytes are releasing their cytokines causing another wave of inflammation that increases belly fat.
When you see horrible hormone problems, from the adrenals, to the thyroid, to PMS, and estrogen dominance, they all have to do with inflammation.
It is inflammation that is behind insulin resistance.
Another sign and symptom is food allergens.
Someone may eat a strawberry or a shellfish and their throat swells up and they have to run to the emergency room to get their epinephrine.
That's an acute allergic reaction.
I'm talking about more the chronic allergic reactions where it's not as obvious as an acute allergic reaction, but still it's going to cause a wave of inflammation.
How do you know that you're eating foods that are causing inflammation?
Gas, bloating, fatigue, abdominal distension, eating certain foods that make you feel not so good—it’s important to understand how food is a huge player in what's driving chronic inflammation.
One major sign and symptom is low energy and fatigue.
If you have no energy to do anything, then that's a sign that your body is burning out.
The house is on fire as you're burning out your adrenals and burning out your thyroid.
We are inundated with chronic fatigue and low energy.
Signs and symptoms of low energy that are triggering a storm of inflammation and are wreaking havoc on our immune system are gastrointestinal disturbances from constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, and infections in our gut.
We have some signs and symptoms, but how do we truly know we're inflamed?
This is where lab testing comes into play.
The first thing I'm always asking my patients is what are their signs and symptoms.
The red flags go off in my head, and I know that we’ve got some inflammation going on.