What’s the Deal with Inflammation?

Inflammation is a vital part of the immune response. It helps you heal from injury and fights infection. The problem isn’t that inflammation exists, it’s when it lingers or is constantly triggered by lifestyle. And for women moving through perimenopause and menopause, that shift toward chronic, low-grade inflammation can become more pronounced as estrogen, one of our natural anti-inflammatory allies, begins to fluctuate and decline.

Our bodies want to be in balance but external factors are always in play. Say for instance, you get a poor night’s sleep and then sleep through your alarm. In a panic, you skip breakfast and just drink coffee. You rush off to work, yelling at the cars in front of you all the way. Your adrenaline is in high gear and your gut is unhappy because you have caffeine on an empty stomach.

Biological mechanisms, including inflammation, are some of the tweaks that help restore balance. Signals are sent to the immune system to call it into action. For instance, lack of sleep can nudge inflammatory cytokines to increase. The surge of adrenaline and cortisol from rushing and yelling in traffic activates immune signaling pathways designed to respond to threat. Add caffeine on an empty stomach and stress-induced changes in gut permeability, and your gut-associated immune system may become further stimulated. Blood sugar instability from skipping breakfast can amplify oxidative stress, which also promotes inflammatory activity. 

As long as this morning was an outlier, it is considered short term inflammation which is largely protective. However, chronic inflammation can happen when the responses from the immune system go unchecked.

Many things can lead to chronic inflammation including disease, poor nutrition, stress, anxiety, depression, overly vigorous exercise, and immune dysfunction. This type of inflammation can lead to a range of issues such as cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. For women in the late stages of perimenopause and menopause, chronic inflammation is even more impactful since estrogen is anti-inflammatory. The less estrogen you have, the more inflammation will impact your health.

The good news is that there are a number of things you can do to stave off chronic inflammation. First and foremost, nourish your body with whole, unprocessed foods in a range of colors. This includes organic, free-range proteins. Rest and move: get good quality sleep and plenty of movement. Weight bearing exercise, especially for women, is also important for developing lean muscle and keeping your bones strong.

The name of the game is balance. Learn to listen to your body and help it to be as balanced as possible. 

This is the first in a series of posts focused on inflammation. In the following posts, I’ll be focusing specifically on the effects of inflammation on perimenopausal and menopausal women.

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https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/acute-vs-chronic-inflammation
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/21660-inflammation