Inflammation Everywhere.

I don't know if it's just me but I have noticed a tremendous influx in dis-eases recently. From cancer, MS, cardiovascular, diabetes, high cholesterol, auto-immunity, allergies depression, anxiety, etc. It seems like everyone around me is getting a new diagnosis.

As I dive deeper and deeper into the books and research for all of these topics, one thing shows up EVERY.SINGLE, TIME. Inflammation.

Let's start off by saying the inflammatory response isn't the bad guy here, the body is MAGICAL and is designed to repair, redirect and restore on a continuous basis. Inflammation in a acute (short term) phase can be great, it means the body is doing its thang, it's clearing house of whatever is foreign or posing a threat, we need that ! What is dangerous is when we continue to expose ourselves to toxins, foods, stressful situations that our body can't keep up with. Maybe attribute it to running; a 5k, 10k, or a marathons can be beneficial for our system but you can't run forever and neither can your immune system, it needs a break and it's our responsibility to give it that chance. If you don't allow the body to rest, it will crap out on you and if it can't function properly it will allow disease to take hold. The body is holding up a white flag "sorry, I tried but damn I'm tired"

I hear from patients that they think inflammation is just the scrape or cut on their leg that is swollen and while YES that is true, inflammation happens inside the body also in places we can't see. Joints are inflamed, the bowels are inflamed, tissues can become inflamed, the vascular system can be come inflamed as well as the brain, all of this resulting in things like arthritic symptoms, cholesterol, diabetes, heart attacks, mental symptoms, and so much more.

We live in a world where unfortunately we are subject to some nasty inflammatory stuff on a daily basis; if it's things that are utterly out of my control then I can't let myself dwell on those things too long (stress can be damaging for body too) but I would encourage you to take a look at the things you can control and ask yourself how you can make choices to contribute to the health of your physical body. If you're feeling tired, run down, exhausted, anxious, get sick easily, chronic pain, GI symptoms like inconsistent bowels, diarrhea, constipation then start from the beginning and look at the things you are exposing yourself too and then ask yourself what feels manageable to change.

Perhaps you start small by just increasing your water intake (we are majority H20), perhaps you switch your fruits and veggies to organic or shop at a local farmer to get those nasty pesticides out of your system, maybe you just add in a fresh squeezed juice everyday to get a boost of vitamins, maybe one less alcoholic beverage (very toxic to the liver - our detox system) consider switching your meat choices to antibiotic and growth hormone free or slimming your cupboards down of food that is highly processed - aka you can't find that sh*t in nature. Like it or not, we are chemically made of the same substances of nature which means our body knows how to process natural things but artificial is mystery to our system and our body is just trying its best to figure it out and when it can't...inflammation.

If it feels more mental then realize that what you ingest visually and mentally matters too; over exposure to toxic media or even toxic relationships will rev up the nervous system and can impact the immune response too...it's all connected peeps. Also ,I think it's frequently overlooked but the things that go on your skin MATTER, our skin is our largest organ, it absorbs directly into our body so if you are using cleaning products, make up, hair products, soaps, etc. that have chemicals or artificial ingredients then our body doesn't know what to do with those and in turn goes haywire leading to you guessed it...inflammation.

With an uptick in cancer, autoimmunity, mental health disorders I think it's time we look to where so much of this is originating from. We are just now starting to see the ramifications of living in this fast food, chemically world and I don't think anyone imagined it would have led to this but it's our responsibility to unravel this shenanigans for our own health.

There are so many incredible podcast, books, blogs, magazines out there now that really go into deep dives on this information. If you think this sounds like you then decide what kind of learner you are - visual-watch a documentary, auditory - listen to a podcast, OG - read a book. If this resonates and you are starting from the beginning then take it slow and have some grace with yourself, it can feel overwhelming but just one small step will snowball into a great change if you allow it. There's no need to count calories, go on a crash diet or do some crazy work out routine- do things that are easy and feel right, eat the rainbow throughout the week if you can, drink lots of water, take a short walk around the block, stretch your body from time to time, next time you have to buy body products opt for something more gentle, all of this can be easy and back to the basics. Most importantly, ask yourself why it is important to you to feel better and let that be your mantra, prayer, guide through this process if you fall off the horse from time to time.

Love your liver,

Hannah