If you’ve spent any time on the internet lately (or ever googled a symptom) you’ve probably heard that inflammation is behind your bloating, your tiredness, your puffy face, your brain fog, your skin, weight gain, weight loss, your hormones…basically everything. The thing is, inflammation itself isn’t the enemy. In fact, your body needs it to a certain degree.
“Inflammation is actually necessary,” says Dr. Nigma Talib, NMD, Naturopathic Doctor and author of Younger Skin Starts in the Gut and soon–to-be-released The Clean Hormone Journey. “It’s one of the ways our immune system protects and repairs us.”
What happens when you cut yourself or twist your ankle? Immune cells and chemical messengers spring into action, blood flow increases, and your body gets to work repairing the damage. That’s known as acute inflammation, and it’s a normal part of healing.
The concern is inflammation that sticks around a little too long. Research has linked chronic systemic inflammation with a range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers, kidney disease, and neurodegenerative and autoimmune conditions. Dr. Nigma relates, “If there’s a fire, you want the fire alarm to go off. You just don’t want it going off all day, every day, when there’s no longer a fire.”
Can you actually feel inflamed?
This is where things get a little more complicated. We have started to blame inflammation for every little discomfort. You may wake up puffy after a salty dinner and call it inflammation. Or, your stomach may feel huge after a meal and you want to blame inflammation. You may be exhausted after a week of terrible sleep and decide your body is inflamed.
While all those sensations are real, the label may not be accurate.
“Feeling inflamed and having measurable chronic systemic inflammation aren’t necessarily the same thing,” says Dr. Nigma. A puffy face after sushi and lots of soy sauce, for example, could simply be sodium-related fluid retention. Alcohol, poor sleep, and hormonal changes can also contribute to puffiness. Bloating, unfortunately, as we know, has a number of causes, including constipation, gas, gut motility, food intolerances, or hormonal shifts.
“If somebody tells me, ‘I constantly feel inflamed. I’m bloated every day, I’m puffy, I’m exhausted, I’m achy and my digestion isn’t right,’ I’m going to investigate,” she says.
What’s actually driving chronic inflammation?
There usually isn’t one culprit. Poor metabolic health, excess visceral fat, smoking, excessive alcohol, physical inactivity, chronic stress, poor diet, and inadequate or disrupted sleep can all play a role.
And sleep deserves way more attention than it gets. Research has found associations between sleep disturbance and inflammatory markers including CRP and IL-6. Dr. Nigma says she sees patients obsessing over their diets and supplements while sleeping five hours a night and living under majorly significant stress. “You can’t ignore that physiology,” she says.
Basically, our bedtime routine may be doing more for us than the $87 anti-inflammatory powder currently sitting in our cart. Don’t get us wrong, tailored supplements can be extremely helpful, but dumping ashwagandha on our problems isn’t always the answer.
Let’s talk “inflammatory foods”
Every few months, the internet seems to discover a new food that is supposedly wreaking havoc on everyone’s inflammation levels. Of course, the food system in the US is dysregulated, and our diets can be a culprit of inflammation. But if you’re a conscious eater, Dr. Nigma isn’t quick to blame a few non-ideal choices every once in a while, and, she believes it’s different for everyone.
“I don’t believe there’s one universal list of inflammatory foods that applies to everybody,” she says. Her advice is refreshingly simple, just eat closer to nature, with plenty of colorful vegetables and fruit, quality protein, healthy fats, fiber, nuts and seeds (if tolerated), herbs and spices, and foods rich in polyphenols.
She also recommends looking at how much ultra-processed food, added sugar, and alcohol you’re consuming. Those are the obvious culprits of inflammation, I think we can all agree. But most importantly, she doesn’t want people becoming afraid of food. “I don’t want people unnecessarily restricting their diets and becoming scared to eat,” she says.
Exercise causes inflammation
This may seem counterintuitive, but exercise itself creates a temporary inflammatory response. When muscles are challenged, they experience a form of physiological stress and repair. Contracting muscles also release signaling molecules called myokines, including IL-6, that help coordinate the body’s response to exercise. Now for the slightly confusing contradiction, stay with us here:
Regular physical activity, meanwhile, can actually improve metabolic health and help reduce chronic inflammatory signaling. AKA, the temporary response to a workout is part of the body adapting to the workout.
“This is why I don’t tell patients we’re trying to eliminate inflammation,” says Dr. Nigma. “We couldn’t survive without an inflammatory response.”
So what can we do?
Dr. Nigma keeps coming back to the unglamorous stuff, like sleep, movement, maintaining muscle, metabolic health, eating well, managing stress, not smoking, and keeping alcohol consumption in check.
The gut is also a major player here. Your intestinal barrier and gut microbiome constantly interact with the immune system, while gut bacteria produce metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids that play roles in intestinal barrier function and immune regulation. It’s one reason digestive health and immune health can be connected without every bout of bloating meaning you have “gut inflammation.”
It’s not all bloating and puffy undereyes. If there’s a real concern about chronic inflammation and the possible illnesses that can stem from it when unchecked for too long, testing can provide useful information. Dr. Nigma often considers markers such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or hs-CRP, alongside a person’s history, symptoms, and bigger metabolic picture. One number on its own doesn’t tell the whole story, that’s the whole premise a holistic naturopath like Dr. Nigma stands on.
Inflammation is part of being a human with an immune system, muscles, hormones, a gut, and the occasional late-night sushi order, maybe a martini. The goal isn’t to live inflammation-free. It’s to give your body the basics it needs to know when to sound the alarm, and when it’s time to turn it off.