Your Chronic Illness Could Start With Inflammation

Transcript

Your Chronic Illness Could Start With Inflammation—

Here's Why

Today we're talking inflammation and what you can do about it

Rita Dimichel: Still searching for answers while being told everything is fine. Today we're

talking inflammation. What it is, how it may be driving your chronic disease and what

you can do about it. Welcome to Beyond Diagnosis. I'm Rita D. Michel and this is the

podcast for health seekers exploring functional, holistic and alternative paths to better

health through expert conversations and real life insights brought to you by the Beyond

Diagnosis collective, your bridge to holistic support. My guest is coach Dr. Ann Hester,

a double board certified physician in internal and lifestyle medicine who helps people

take control of their health through evidence based lifestyle care.

Dr. Ann Hester: It is such an honor to be here. Thank you so much.

Rita Dimichel: It's a, pleasure to have you. Lifestyle medicine is going through the roof.

People are starting to wake up to the fact that we can't keep going down the path we're

going. We can't keep just eating anything we want at any age. There's so many

consequences like inflammation building. You describe inflammation as like the body

silent alarm system. How does inflammation begin in the body and why do so many

people have it and they don't even know?

Dr. Ann Hester: Well, let's go back to what, inflammation is. Just imagine you step off of

the curb and you twist your ankle and that area is swollen and warm and painful. All of

these cells, all of these things are coming into that area to try to heal it. So that kind of

inflammation is good because it is a healing. Now just imagine that same sort of

process on a smaller level throughout your body. This ongoing inflammation with all

these cells coming in, all of these things coming into the tissues, ultimately it causes

damage. M And so acute inflammation is fine. You want to heal, but you consider what

it's like to make it widespread all over your body. That on a cellular level, on a tissue

level, puts you at risk for diabetes, cancer, all sorts of things. And so there are many

things that we do that can impact our inflammation in the body. something as simple as

white flour. The foods that we eat can be pro inflammatory or anti inflammatory. So

basically, the closer it is to the earth, the better you are.

Rita Dimichel: Do we take inflammation serious enough? And when people go to the

doctors with their aches and pains, all the rest of it, do the doctors tell them this is most

probably widespread inflammation or are they just given a pill and sent on their way and

then people don't realize a that like I said, they don't even know they've got it or they

just don't take it? They said, oh yeah, my inflammation is a little bit high and they're not

taking it seriously?

Dr. Ann Hester: No, they don't take it seriously because it's not something that people

have been taught. So there's a blood test called there's more than one, but the crp, the

C reactor protein, unless you know the degree of inflammation in the body, and we

know that when that is high, you have a higher risk of a heart attack. That is the leading

cause of death in America and many other places. And so you can actually do lab tests

to get an idea of the level of inflammation in your body. but it's very important to

understand that our everyday habits cause this inflammation. And just like they cause

the inflammation, or everyday habits can calm it down. And so we have a lot of power

over what happens in our lives.

Rita Dimichel: We know, like you said in the beginning, you twist your ankle, you fall off

the curb, whatever, you know, that it's burning, is swelling. And people say, oh, that's the

healing of inflammation.

A lot of people who have high levels of inflammation have no idea

But what are some of the signs or the symptoms as opposed to the bigger diseases,

which I would like to get to. But what are some of the symptoms that someone can feel

throughout their body, that they're not joining the dots, that that is actually high

inflammation?

Dr. Ann Hester: It's more a vague sort of symptom, more so than my finger hurts. Now,

technically, your finger can hurt if you have, you know, acute arthritis, if you have gout in

your toes and other things. Yes. But some people might just feel off, like, you know, I'm,

just not feeling right. You go to the doctor, your doctor does the routine blood test,

everything is fine, but you're not, you know, something's just not right. But honestly, a lot

of people who have high levels of inflammation have no idea. They don't know until the

doctor tells them. Because the doctor just happened to get that blood test, which, by the

way, is not a routine blood test. So if you're going in for your annual exam, that's not the

sort of blood test your doctor is going to likely to get. And so most people, they have no

idea that the level of inflammation is high, that an increased risk of heart attacks. And

unfortunately, the first sign of heart disease for a lot

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Dr. Ann Hester: of people is a cardiac arrest where they die. A lot of people don't make

it to the hospital. They don't have any symptoms up until the time then they have a fatal

cardiac arrest. And that's when the family learns that they have heart disease. And so

we need to be proactive. We need to be of, the mindset that I need to protect myself, I

need to protect My family. I need to think about where I want to be in a few years. You

know, you can choose path A. Do all the things you want to do, likely live a shorter life.

All, that money that you put aside, you're probably going to spending it, on medical bills,

but it won't be on trips around the world. Or you can start thinking long term. There's a

huge difference between the life expectancy and the quality of life. We talk about the life

expectancy span. How long do you live? You can live 20 years in a nursing home. The

health span is how long you live in health. Not many people want a long lifespan with a

low health span. We can keep people alive for a long time on machines, on, ah, drugs,

IV fluids, artificial feeding, but that's not a quality of life. But I want people to really

understand that what happens has a tremendous amount to do with our choices. For

instance, a lot of people feel if they have relatives with certain diseases, I'm doomed.

Nothing I do is going to work, so I'm going to enjoy Life. But really 90% of your DNA is

what we call the epigenome, meaning it's not the genes. So just imagine a Christmas

tree light. And every now and then you see a light, but you have this long string that you

plug into the wall that's like your DNA. The lights intermittently, those are the genes. But

the long string that makes up the bulk of it, that's what we call the epigenome. Or in

other words, that is what will turn those genes off and on. So the Christmas tree lights

return the lights off or on based on our choices. And by those lights, biologically, I mean

the lights that promote cancer, the lights that reduce the risk of cancer, those genes can

be turned toward cancer or toward protecting against cancer based on, your everyday

choices. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Rita Dimichel: They get a better picture if they're going to the doctor and they feel, so

we're not, so we're not at the disease part yet. But when they're feeling tired, foggy,

bloated, all of those, they got pains in their muscles or their joints and they go to the

doctor and explain all that they're not getting anywhere. What is the test that they can

ask for? When you describe the blood test and it's not a common one, so what would

they ask, ah, the doctor. So if they're advocating for themselves and say, I feel all this,

I've read about or I've heard about inflammation, I want this test what is it?

Dr. Ann Hester: The easiest thing is just to say the test for inflammation. So there's

more than one crp, is called the C Reactive protein crp, and then there's another one

called the esr, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. I mean, so instead of getting into

trying to remember that, just say, hey, doc, can you check me for inflammation? That's

probably the easiest way to go

Rita Dimichel: to understand the root cause of so many of these diseases that people

have. Inflammation is, ah, most probably the root cause, but, our lifestyle, choices, you

were saying, create the inflammation, which is. So is it really the root cause or is it our

choices that are the root cause? But what are some of the most common diseases that

you find connected to inflammation that people are not joining the dots to?

Dr. Ann Hester: Diabetes is one of the most common diseases. Heart disease, I

mentioned that crp, when that level is high, we know that there's a higher risk of a heart

attack. And since a lot of heart attacks are fatal, before you get to the doctor, you don't

want to play with that. You want to do everything you can on the front end to decrease

your inflammation, aside from anything the doctor is doing. Because the doctor may or

may not say, okay, I'll order the test. Some say, ah, I don't think you need to worry about

that. You take control. If you know what you can do to put yourself in the driver's seat,

going in the right direction, you do that. Don't wait on the doctor or anybody else to

make the choices that you can make today.

Rita Dimichel: It's so important to take control, isn't it, to feel confident that you can

speak to a doctor or that you have the. Actually, I think it's actually more goes down to

you have the right to say what you want and to, you know, say that what you're giving

me doesn't work. You know, I know that. For a quick story, my husband, he was on a

nerve medication and it was. He was losing his sight. And we told them he didn't

appreciate it. So I said, well, that's it. We find someone else. And that's the right people

have. Like you were saying, you have to advocate for yourself.

Dr. Ann Hester: Absolutely. You do, you do. The patient should be the center of his or

her healthcare team, not the doctor.

What foods most likely will fuel in inflammation are ultra processed

foods

Rita Dimichel: So let's talk a little bit more about what you specialize in, which is the

lifestyle medicine and how

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Rita Dimichel: that helps people with their health, with the problems that they're having.

Whether they had, like you said, whether they have heart disease, diabetes, chronic

Pain, stomach. I think inflammation affects all the digestive.

Dr. Ann Hester: Oh yeah, it affects everything.

Rita Dimichel: It affects everything. What foods most likely will fuel in inflammation?

Dr. Ann Hester: Ultra processed foods. If it's in a bag or a box, it's been processed.

Processed to different extents. If you go shopping, you look at the, in the aisles that

they have the fresh fruits, the fresh vegetables, you know, the, the milk, whether it's soy

milk, almond milk, cow's milk, whatever the case may be, you know, the, the healthy

cuts of meat, those are the foods that your body wants. Your body is not a petri dish.

Your body does not enjoy it. When you ingest foods that were manufactured with these

chemists who say, well, this combination of fat, sugar and salt will hit the pleasure

centers of the brain, make the person want more and more and more, and will make

our company a ton of money. No, we're not experiments. The natural things on this

earth are the things that your body wants. Once you start adding in all of these

chemical stuff, you can't even pronounce all of these ways, these manufacturing

mechanisms, putting all these things together, you're getting yourself into trouble. The

closer you are some other earth the better. And so let's, let's take a look at ultra

processed foods. So I have a mini orchard in the backyard because I'm really into whole

foods. So if I go and I pull an apple off the tree, that's a whole food. And I don't use the

chemicals to spray because that's, that's the horse of another color. But if I go in the

house and I chop it up and I put some butter and sugar and cinnamon in it, I'm

processing it. But then if I go and I make this batter, this dough, you know, with flour,

white flour and you know, butter and everything, and I put it together and I make a little

fritter and I fry it, you know, that is another level of processing. And so the closer you

are to the natural state of the fruits and the vegetables and the meats and the milks and

also, and all those things, the better you are because you don't. Your body was not

made to be a chemistry lab. And when you add all of these man made ingredients, all of

these processes for preparing things and taking out the natural fiber and the vitamins

and all the nutrients and you say, this is quick, it's simple, it tastes good, yes, but that

path May cost you 10 years of your life. Or it may cost you all the money you put aside

for retirement. You may be spending that on medical bills and so we need to stop and

think. We live in a fast paced world. The quicker it is, the better. That's the mindset. But

we need to get past that and realize that we are destroying ourselves when with that

mindset, you know, it's not like you're going to spend all of your life preparing for your

first two days at a grade preschool. If you look out, you take it out. If I live to be 70, 80,

90, do I want to be in a wheelchair? Do I want to be in a nursing home? Do I want to be

traveling cruises? All these things with family and friends and the choices that you

make now can actually determine where you are 10, 15 years from now. Even if you're

alive, you, it can determine the quality of life that you have in the future.

Rita Dimichel: When you're speaking to your clients, do you find that that may be one of

the issues, is that they're not thinking about where they want to be in 10 years time or

where they want their, how they want their health to be. It's very much I'm in the

moment and I'm stressed and I've got family and I got work and I need something quick.

I race to the supermarket, I grab a box, I bring it home. That's part of the whole thing.

Dr. Ann Hester: Exactly. What's going on?

Rita Dimichel: Exactly, exactly. Like I love the saying. Someone once said to me, natural

food is, has one ingredient. And I said, an apple has one ingredient. A pumpkin, has

one ingredient. It's a pumpkin, you know, and that's it. You know, we don't have all these

other things. What about if someone has an intolerant? Like, you know, if you have an

allergy? Allergy is completely different. But what happens if you have an intolerance to

a food and you're not, you don't realize like you might be having irritable bowel and you

haven't connected that you can't take milk or you don't realize that the coffee that you're

having, you may not be processing or digesting it properly like someone else and that's

causing inflammation. Would you suggest that someone. It would be good for someone

to get a food tolerance test. If they're feeling all these aches and pains and they can't

pinpoint what it

Dr. Ann Hester: is, it certainly can. But the cheapest and easiest thing to do is you take

things out of your

00:15:00

Dr. Ann Hester: diet. If your diet consists of A, B, C, D and E on an average day, one

week, take out a, go a week, see how you feel. No difference. Okay. A, wasn't it? Try to

take out B, and you can give yourself a food challenge at home to see what things

agree with you and what things don't. Case in point, I'm a vegetarian now, but when I,

you know, was into meat, I used to go get the double cheeseburgers and the french

fries and everything. And by the time I was finished eating, I was like this. I'm

exhausted, no energy. And, in addition to just overeating and eating the junk, I don't do

well with white flour. To this day. If I eat a piece of white toast, I'm gonna feel it. I feel like

I'm immediately zapped of my energy. I know for me, I don't even want to go there.

There's no point. You know, I may try something, and I know I'm going to regret it, so

why do it? And so just become more in tune with your body. If you feel a certain way

after a certain meal, ask yourself, what was in this meal? What can I take out of my

diet? And if you do those things and the symptoms don't come back, you have your

answer.

Rita Dimichel: And I think it also helps to make you more intentional about what you're

doing. So you become more intentional about what you're eating. I think that's one of

the, areas that has definitely been dampened. You know, we eat quickly, we eat in front

of the tv, we talk, we stand and eat or whatever. It's not intentional anymore and really

thinking about what we're doing. When someone says, I've got food coma, for example,

would that be like, inflammation of the brain? You know, people go, oh, I've got into a

food coma. They just want to sleep after they've eaten.

Dr. Ann Hester: not necessarily. When you eat a big meal, you know, and you have all

of this blood supply in your gut, and so you need to adjust it, so you need a lot of blood.

And so you may not have as much blood flow going to your brain because all of it is just

rushing. That you just ate a huge meal and you need to digest it. The fact that you just

ate a lot and maybe something that you ate. Like I said, I don't do well with rice flour.

Our gut is like the second brain. When they told us that in medical school decades ago,

it's like, yeah, yeah, I don't believe it. It's so true. Your gut does so much.

Your gut makes 95% of the serotonin in your body

It. It deals with your immune system. It's like one layer of your gut. You know, you have

the bacteria and the stool, and then this Layer and then the inside. You said you have

this area of your immune system that is strongly influenced by what's in your gut. The

gut microbiome. That means the trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and so forth, little

microorganisms in your gut, those rule the show. For instance, a lot of people have

heard of, Prozac, Paxil, and all these drugs for their mood, depression and anxiety.

Well, they're in a class called ssri, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Because

serotonin is your feel good hormone. You get high levels of serotonin, you don't have as

much stress, you don't have as much depression. Well, your gut makes 90 to 95% of

the serotonin in your body. And when you have a happy gut, you feel better. You don't

have the same level of, anxiety and depression because your gut is able to churn out

this serotonin that naturally makes you feel good. Exercise releases endorphins, makes

you feel good. And so all of these things can be interconnected. What you eat, how you

sleep, how you move, how you handle stress and the toxins in your environment, all of

those things are related. And also something else that's really important. There's a love

hormone called oxytocin. When you hug somebody you love, when you pet your

gorgeous puppy, all those things make you release oxytocin, the love hormone. Well,

oxytocin counterbalances cortisol, the stress hormone. The stress hormone cortisol

fuels all this inflammation over and over. When your cortisol, cortisol level is high, your

inflammation can be sky high. And something as simple as holding hands with

somebody you love, playing with your puppy, anything that makes you feel that love is

actually releasing a hormone that helps block the inflammation hormone.

Rita Dimichel: So that's great for people who eat healthy. They eat a whole food diet,

you know, they exercise, but their stress is high. And how much does stress play into

increasing our, levels of inflammation throughout the body?

Dr. Ann Hester: Stress is huge. When you're ultra stressed, your cortisol levels are high.

Let me give you an example. A person under stress. You can do an MRI of the brain

before and after long term stress. At first, things look normal. After long term stress,

they repeat. The mri, same person. The brain has changed. The CEO of the brain, the

prefrontal cortex that deals with your higher cortical functions is smaller. Hippocampus

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Dr. Ann Hester: that deals with your memory is smaller. The, amygdala that deals with

your stress and anxiety, it blooms. So there is A physical basis. You can see on the MRI

that the good parts of the brain are shrinking under stress. And the bad part of the

brain, the anxiety, all of that, that area is larger. And so you're literally changing your

biology, your anatomy with the chronic stress.

There are a number of things people can do to help relieve stress

And if I may, I'd like to give a couple of things people can do to help the stress.

Rita Dimichel: Absolutely.

Dr. Ann Hester: So there is this area called tapping etf. And so what you do is literally

just tapping. Take a few fingers. You tap the top of your head, you tap here for your

eyebrow, underneath, your nose, underneath your chin, and then right by your

breastbone, you can raise your arm and do it right under your arm. That has so much to

do with relieving stress, it's unbelievable. You can do it anytime. So let me give you

some examples. Some people prior were, people who are in war. They had ptsd. This

was in America. So they took these retired soldiers who had seen a lot, and they were

clinically diagnosed with ptsd. Post traumatic stress disorder. They took them through

extensive tapping. Not just what I did, but the full program. At the end of the program,

almost half of them no longer clinically had ptsd. They also took the program to

Rwanda. You may remember that a lot of people were murdered with machetes and so

forth, and adults who saw their parents machete to death, who had ptsd that took them

through this four program. And when it was over, a lot of them no longer had ptsd. They

remembered, but they did not have that stress, that pain associated with it. When you're

at a stoplight, you're feeling stressed, you can tap absolutely free. You sit around

waiting for something, tap doesn't cost you a penny. Other things that are important you

can take. You can do box breathing. 4 breath, 4 seconds. In through your nose, hold it

for a second. Out through your nose, hold it for a second. It's a box. Same amount each

time. It's definitely four seconds. It can be five. There's no magic number, about four.

Breathing exercises are huge things, as simple as, like, chamomile, teal tea, a hot bath

with lavender salts, beautiful music in the background. So many things can be done.

Exercise is an excellent stress reliever. Excellent. Your body releases these chemicals

that decrease the stress. So by the time you finished a good workout, your stress level

has already come down here. And so you don't need a pill all the time. If your doctor

says your anxiety is sky high, take a pill, you do what your doctor says. I'm a health

coach. I'm not your Doctor, I'm just telling you some things that you can do to naturally

bring it down. And you might find you start doing these things and you say, doc, I feel

better. And your doctor says, okay, let's cut the dose in half. And then three months

later, let's cut it in half again. So your body can heal from the inside. It just needs the

proper tools.

Rita Dimichel: I could imagine from what you've just shared with us that if someone

continuously has a negative dialogue happening, that the mind, body connection, that

that negative mindset would obviously then fuel inflammation throughout the body. And

then it's that cascade of symptoms,

Dr. Ann Hester: the negative mindset, over time it can destroy your life, it can cause

disease, it can increase your risk of multiple diseases. So your heart and your mind, I

don't just mean the physical heart, I mean how you feel, your mind, how you think, all of

these things are interwoven. So I mentioned it's something as simple as petting your

beautiful puppy decreases your inflammation because the love hormone helps block

the cortisol that's trying to cause inflammation. So absolutely what you do, your

mindset, your actions, have a huge impact not just on how you feel, but there are

physiologic mechanisms that tear your body down as a result. So I have a client who

had the CRP level done. His, doctor was very proactive and for years it was very high.

Didn't know what he was doing wrong. He was exercising. Sometimes he even walked

20 miles in a month and the level remained high. I put him on this regimen to do things,

specifically the diet. I changed the diet. We focus more on whole food, plant based sorts

of things. I encouraged him to sleep. We worked on some things as far as stress. The

blood test, most recent blood test is almost completely normal

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Dr. Ann Hester: where it had been almost actually over twice normal for a long time.

The power of your choices cannot be understated

The power of your choices cannot be understated. You get to choose. I wrote this song,

it's called this Life is Designed by Me and you know, it is an encouraging song. It's a

faith based song, encourages us, you know, that we need to do a lot of things that we

can do. We can design our own future, we can design our own life within reason. We

don't have all power, but the decisions that we make can change our life expectancy,

change the trajectory. As I mentioned, just imagine your genes having these off on

switches. Your mom and your and your dad, they may have the gene that increases

your risk of diabetes and you do all the wrong things. You get diabetes, but you do all

the Right things. You're moving that switch the other direction. You're m moving it

against diabetes despite what your family history is. And so that is one of the most

important things that I'm going to leave with people today. If you have choices, don't let

outside forces manipulate you to the point that you feel I'm stressed, I've got to do this

to get through the day. They're making their money. The pharmaceutical companies,

they're making their money. The food manufacturers making these foods with

ingredients that you can't even read, they're making their money. You're losing your

money. You're losing your money in medical bills and time off of work and lost

productivity. You're losing happiness and time with your friends and your family. So

realize that you have the ability to create your vision and act with precision to make it

happen. You matter and you need to take control of your life.

Rita Dimichel: That's very empowering. Just as it's so empowering to know that we're

not a victim to our genes. We do have the power and the choice if we make the right

choices.

Dr. Ann Hester: So lifestyle, medicine is six pillars. A whole food plant predominant diet,

stress management, adequate sleep, restorative sleep, the social connections for the

love hormone, the toxin avoidance. And I don't just mean alcohol and tobacco. I mean

the perfumed lotion that you put all over your body and the chemicals are being

absorbed. And then exercise. Some of the most powerful things would be the whole

food plant based diet. Exercise. You don't have to join the gym. I have, I work at home. I

have a desk that I lift up and I'm typing on the computer. I put a treadmill underneath it

and I walk. Sometimes I just run in place at the computer. I do Tai chi. You can do all

sorts of things. You can exercise any place you are. And then as far as the third, I'm

going back and forth between stress and sleep. I'm going to have to go stress. Because

stress rewires your brain and it does many other things. But if you're not as stressed,

guess what, you're going to sleep better. If you sleep better, guess what? You're not

going to have all those cravings for the junk food the next day. You don't have all the

cravings for the junk food, then your gut microbiome is going to be happier and

producing all these chemicals to make you feel good and not, blah. And so these things

are very intricately woven together. And so again, whole food, plant predominant diet,

eat as many different colors of fruits and vegetables in a week as you can. The plate

method is a half of your plate would be like non starchy vegetables. A quarter would be

healthy meat. A quarter would be something like grains or starchy vegetables. And of

course, you need to add fruit as well. Drink plenty of water, stay hydrated. But if you do

that regularly, you are rewired. Wiring your body, you're rewiring your gut, and your gut

is your second brain.

Rita Dimichel: It's just getting back down to basics, getting back down to nature. look at

how our grandparents lived their lives. They ate healthy, they moved, and, well, they

either had some form of stress release, Most of them had faith, or, you know, we now

have, you know, other practices, but do something that you love. Thank you for coming

on and for everybody, if you do resonate with what coach Dr. Ann has been saying

about lifestyle medicine. It doesn't have to be just about inflammation for anything that

you're experiencing. all her details will be in the show. Notes connect with her. Thank

you so much for sharing this knowledge with us.

Dr. Ann Hester: thank you for having me. It was really a pleasure. Sa.