Here's How Long It Actually Takes To Heal Inflammation

Inflammation underscores so much of what we cover here at mbg—it’s the root cause of not only preventable diseases but also gut dysfunction that many of us experience daily. So, for the next 10 days, we’re doing a deep dive into inflammation, giving you everything you need to know: the basics of what inflammation is, how to know if you have it, and what you can do to control it. Follow along here, and to learn even more, check out our FREE Functional Nutrition Webinar with Vincent Pedre, M.D.

Almost every patient I see has some degree of chronic inflammation. That's especially concerning since chronic inflammation is a chief driver for nearly every disease1 on the planet, including obesity. It contributes to numerous gut problems including dysbiosis2, or gut imbalances that lead to problems like leaky gut.

Sometimes finding the sources of chronic inflammation can take some detective work. For one patient, we discovered that hidden black mold in her house from an old leak was creating it. Others may work in factories, where their occupational exposures can exacerbate inflammation.

Yet for almost everyone, inflammation stems from multiple culprits, including poor diets, the overprescribing of antibiotics, chronic stress, insufficient sleep, and environmental exposures.

The good news is that, with the right strategies, you can start healing your gut and heal your body of inflammation, pain, and other miseries.

Chronic inflammation doesn't happen overnight, nor does reversing it, especially if you've been very inflamed for a long time. But by incorporating all (not just one—remember, there's no easy way out!) of these strategies, you will begin taming your inflammation and start seeing results in as little as two weeks.

Once you've healed, keeping up with a strict plan may be burdensome, but I encourage you to hold on for a little bit longer. As a rule of thumb, stick with the plan for another two to three months after you feel your best. At that point, you can experiment with an occasional cheat, but keep a journal of what you're eating and how you're feeling to make sure your symptoms don't start creeping back in. If you don't want to end up back where you started, treat your body with care and respect.

Taming chronic inflammation starts with what you put on the end of your fork. In other words, your best defense to fight inflammation starts with your very next meal or snack. Researchers find that a pro-inflammatory diet significantly increases weight gain3 and your risk for being overweight or obesity.

The best way to shift that balance is to eat fewer inflammatory foods and much more anti-inflammatory food. The latter include wild-caught fish, loads of nonstarchy vegetables, low-sugar fruit like berries and avocado, raw nuts and seeds, and cultured and fermented foods. Stop and consider, for instance, that our ancestors ate nearly an equal ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids—whereas today we are eating 20 times (sometimes higher)4 of inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. We're eating fewer anti-inflammatory foods, but the inflammatory ones we consume (sometimes from not-so-obvious sources like almond milk or factory-raised eggs) can crowd out the healthy ones.

You cannot fix inflammation without fixing the gut. When your gut lining is disturbed, it cannot absorb nutrients optimally and inflammation develops. Eventually problems like leaky gut lead to food sensitivities and even autoimmune disease.

A downward spiral occurs as gut inflammation becomes systemic (or full-body) inflammation, creating pain, headaches, and other symptoms that you might never suspect originated in your gut.

If you're not eating an anti-inflammatory diet and incorporating other lifestyle strategies delineated here, taking supplements that can lower inflammation won't help much.

Many of the over 80,000 chemicals we are exposed to daily have not been tested for human safety. They are everywhere: in our furniture as fire retardants, in cosmetics as heavy metals, in our household cleaners as emulsifiers, and in our food as preservatives. These toxins create all sorts of problems9. They disrupt our hormonal balance, keep our immune system revved up, and increase our risk for diseases including cancer and autoimmune disease. Chronic inflammation plays a role in all of these problems.

Just like we are all inflamed, we are all toxic. To reduce that toxic load, you'll want to minimize the toxins you're exposed to daily that are under your control.

That might mean becoming more mindful about what cosmetics you use, what household cleaners you keep around, and what skin products you spread on your body, as well as drinking clean, filtered water, eating mostly organic plant foods, and if you are a meat eater, mainly consuming clean protein sources like pasture-raised meats.

Research shows that regular exercise protects against chronic low-grade systemic inflammation10 present in diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I like to use the word "movement" as opposed to "exercise" because movement encompasses a broader array of activities.

Yours might include yoga, brisk walking, or weight resistance exercises. Research shows high-intensity interval training, which is fast and effective, can reduce the inflammation that contributes to disease like cancer11. But remember this—if you're a CrossFitter or do any high-intensity exercise, then stock up on the anti-inflammatory nutrients I mentioned above. Moderate exercise reduces inflammation, but extreme exercise (like marathon training and Tough Mudders) will increase inflammation.

Stress is a major and underestimated factor that affects inflammation, even when all other lifestyle behaviors (like diet and exercise) are on point.

Stress increases inflammation12, regardless of how good you're being with your diet. It activates the fight-or-flight response that makes you feel like you're under attack when you're not. It can lead to elevated blood pressure, palpitations, and reduced blood flow to the intestines, resulting in poor digestion and assimilation of nutrients.

Some of my patients live under and handle such elevated levels of stress on a daily basis they consider it normal. They have become desensitized to the thought of stress, but their bodies have not been desensitized to the ravages of stress. Essentially, they've ceased to notice what a huge impact stress has on their lives. I often point out to my patients how full their plates are and how even if the load they carry (between work and social life) feels "normal," it shouldn't be their "normal."

Forty percent of Americans get less than the seven hours of recommended sleep per night. When compared to the amount of sleep Americans got in 1942, we are getting one hour less per night. That's outstanding considering modern technology should be making our lives easier, not harder. The problem is the health ramifications of sleep deprivation.

Studies support what I see regularly in my practice: Sleep deprivation can trigger or exacerbate inflammation13. Multiple mechanisms are at work here. Sleep loss adversely alters the body's inflammatory markers, but then you are more prone to make unwise food choices, fuel up on caffeine to get through the morning, and feel more stressed throughout your day with less sleep. Keeping inflammation under control requires eight to nine hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep every night.