Hi Friends,
Where do you stand as far as INFLAMMATION? Sometimes inflammation is obvious. If you have pain somewhere in your body, that means there is inflammation. On your blood tests, an easy way to assess your inflammation is to check your HS-CRP.
HS-CRP is a marker of inflammation in your body and an indicator of cardiovascular risk. Ideal HS-CRP is < 1.0
If your HS-CRP is high, we need to look for the ROOT cause.
Is it your diet? The Standard American Diet (SAD Diet is high in refined sugar, refined flours, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods, vegetable oils, and trans fat, all of which can raise your HS-CRP. Many of these foods spike your blood sugar and insulin levels, which add to the cycle of inflammation.
If there is inflammation in your gut microbiome due to leaky gut or a bacterial imbalance (dysbiosis), this can lead to systemic inflammation, which will raise your HS-CRP. This is why it’s so important to heal your gut microbiome.
A bacterial or viral infection can also cause your HS-CRP to be elevated. In this case, it’s actually a protective acute inflammatory response to fight off the infection.
Chronic stress can elevate your cortisol levels, leading to higher HS-CRP. If your stress level is through the roof year after year, this could put you at an increased risk of a heart attack!
Finally, genetic factors are another contributing factor to HS-CRP. I’ve seen patients who are eating impeccably clean diets and exercising every day, who still have elevated HS-CRP due to their genetics.
Why is chronic inflammation bad? It puts you at higher risk of developing most chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s dementia, cancers, and autoimmune diseases.
In combating inflammation, the #1 step is cleaning up the diet. This means cutting out refined sugar, alcohol, processed foods, vegetable oils, and eating more vegetables and clean organic foods Some people need to take the additional step and cut out gluten and dairy to see improvement in inflammation.
Next, we have to heal the gut microbiome. Depending on the findings on your gut microbiome test, we can create a customized plan to heal your gut. This often involves L-glutamine powder, probiotics, and digestive enzymes.
Managing stress is also paramount! This means carving out self-care time for the relaxing activities you enjoy, like exercise, reading, meditation, gardening, art, music, and spending time with friends and family.
My two favorite supplements for lowering inflammation are Omega 3 Fish Oil✨ and Turmeric Pro✨ .
Warm regards,
Rajsree Nambudripad, MD
Dr. Rajsree is a caring and compassionate physician, who is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Integrative/Holistic medicine. She is passionate about helping patients optimize their health through a preventative approach involving healthy lifestyle, dietary changes, targeted nutritional supplementation, and optimizing hormones. Her practice is unique in the personalized attention she devotes to each and every patient.