6 Ways to Decrease Stress-Induced Inflammation

Dr. Greg Wells

There is widespread agreement that one of the common pathways involved in all human disease, especially chronic diseases, is inflammation. We also know that chronic stress is one of the primary contributors to elevated inflammation levels in the human body. As a result, any conversation about optimal health and performance needs to include an exploration of how we can decrease systemic inflammation. We all need to make an effort to recover and regenerate more effectively so we give ourselves the best chance to avoid conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and depression.

I’m professionally interested in understanding inflammation in the body, but it’s also a personal matter for me. In 2012, I had a virus that put me in hospital which was essentially just inflammation in my heart muscles.

The science is highly compelling and clearly demonstrates that excess inflammation in our bodies is detrimental. The thing to understand is that inflammation isn’t inherently a problem or even something we want to, or can, eliminate. In small amounts, inflammation helps the body heal, but chronic inflammation can lead to health problems.

Here’s how the body’s inflammatory mechanism works.

Exercise and stress cause mechanical and metabolic stresses on the body such as structural damage to cells and increased metabolic rate. The process affects mitochondria and produces reactive oxygen species, which are what we are trying to address when we take in antioxidants. Stresses also cause our bodies to release inflammatory markers, the white blood cells that go out and repair all the damage.

Ultimately, inflammation is a good process if your body can repair quickly. It's basically like burning down a forest and allowing it to regrow. You need inflammation. When you work out, you create inflammation inside your body. Then, through good nutrition and sleep, you cue recovery and regeneration so your body can heal itself and get stronger, fitter and faster. But if you don’t allow time for recovery and jump right into the next workout, you’ll end up sick and injured.

The same goes for ongoing mental and emotional stresses. If you want to perform at a world-class level, you have to wire in time to back off and calm down. It's really critical. A perpetual state of inflammation is not healthy.

Aside from adequate rest and good nutrition, there are lots of ways to reduce inflammation. For example, you can make sure your diet has ample turmeric in it, combine intermittent fasting with regular exercise and explore the benefits of hot and cold immersion.

Here are six more ways you can reduce inflammation:

1) Raise the nutrient content of your food: I have a simple formula for assessing the quality of food: Health = Nutrients over Calories. If you want to dramatically up-level your health, crank up the nutrient level in your food relative to your caloric load. Then you can titrate to figure out how many calories you need. Look at body composition, look at energy and keep focused on getting as many nutrients as possible.

2) Omega 3: The science is clear that Omega 3 fatty acids are just amazing for your brain. My personal experience also supports that finding. I spent a chunk of time in 2017 in Portugal doing a strategic retreat on an olive oil farm. We did olive oil shots every night before dinner. I think I drank a gallon of olive oil that week. We would hike for hours each day and swim in the ocean. Then I would come back and spend five or six hours in their library deconstructing everything that I was doing with my career. I can’t remember a time when I was so mentally alert and creative. It was amazing.

3) Shift from sauces to spices: Move toward using spices like turmeric, ginger and cinnamon whenever you can. They are incredible flavours and have enormous health benefits. Many spices have anti-inflammatory properties and loads of other effects we’re just learning about.

4) Reduce simple sugars in your diet: Sugar not only causes inflammation, it also decreases the size of the hippocampus, the structure in your brain responsible for learning and memory. Seriously scary. Just think about all those kids who are being fed high sugar, highly processed foods every day. They damage the part of the brain associated with learning. I cannot believe we allow chocolate milk and pop in schools. Oh, and by the way, high sugar diets also decrease brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), decrease cyclic AMP (the energy currency inside the neurons of your brain) and lower synaptic mRNA (the genetic code for neuron connections inside your brain). Sugar is bad.

5) Meditation: Research is increasingly linking meditation to reducing inflammation. It only takes about 15 minutes a day to acquire the benefits. You can use technology like the Muse™ headband, take a course or download an app. Whatever method works for you. Just get some meditation into your life – it has major benefits right across the health spectrum.

6) Smell the roses: A final way to get enough rest and recovery is to make sure you stop and take life in. My son Adam is a master. He's three. He runs around for a little while and then he finds a spot to settle in. It's incredible to watch him. Get him near water or trees, and he just looks at them. One weekend, we were down by the lake near our house in Toronto when he asked me to come and sit with him under a tree. I leaned against the trunk and he came and sat between my legs, leaning back on me. We just sat there and looked up at the trees in the wind as the sun was coming through the fog. It was just a crazy cool moment where my three-year-old was teaching me how to live. Magic.

Try any combination of these techniques to decrease inflammation in your system, perform at your best and improve your health at the same time.