We awaken with a jolt, having slept poorly from too much stress, too much screen time and late night snacking; then we guzzle a mug of sweetened coffee with a pastry and hit the road to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic to the office.
The caffeine kicks our sympathetic nervous system into the fight or flight response about the time the sugar buzz hits. Now we’re wired and tired and ready for the workday. 🤯
By mid-morning our blood sugar plummets (since there was little nutritional value in that “breakfast”), and we reach for another cup of coffee and something sweet.
Then we skip lunch and work at our desk until we’re dozing off mid-afternoon and grab a sandwich to eat on the run.
By 5 pm, we’re in no mood for the gym and once we get home, we’re too tired to cook and end up snacking on cheese, crackers and wine until we fall asleep on the couch binge watching TV.
Rinse and repeat.
If this sounds anything like you, then you need to know how dangerous this vicious cycle is and most importantly, you need to know that it can be broken!
Just like there is a recipe that creates chronic disease, there is a recipe for optimizing our health.
So let’s get clear about the processes that promote the chronic disease epidemic, and then I trust you’ll be ready to take the key action steps to address them and live a long and healthy life!
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, the chronic disease epidemic (the cluster of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia) is both preventable and reversible when addressed in its early stages. That’s the good news!
But like frogs in a beaker of heating water that are unaware of their plight until it’s too late, we’re unknowingly subjecting ourselves to a set of conditions that are leading to our demise.
While there are many contributors to these conditions, there are six processes that are driving the chronic disease epidemic today.
If you get them on your radar now, you can start to make the kind of changes that could prevent their progression into conditions you never want to have!
This will be a series of posts that highlights these drivers, starting with:
1) Inflamm-aging
Acute inflammation is our body’s natural, healing response to tissue injury or infection. It repairs damaged tissue by releasing a cascade of chemical messengers (cytokines) that increase blood flow, causing the pain, redness, heat and swelling characteristic of inflammation.
In the short run, that’s good. It brings an army of chemicals (cytokines) and immune cells to fight infection and heal the damaged tissue. The process should be short lived and clear within a few hours to days.
But chronic inflammation is destructive. It results when those inflammatory cytokines don’t turn off and spread out of control, fanning the flames to smolder indefinitely. The result is an array of conditions ending in “itis”: arthritis, dermatitis, gastritis, hepatitis, neuritis and autoimmune disease.
Over time, this low grade, chronic inflammation promotes the aging process and is known as “inflamm-aging”.
It’s time to put out these fires of chronic inflammation! To help you get started, here’s a link to an earlier post on the subject: https://www.drsallyskitchen.com/blog-main/2018/1/10/inflammation-heres-how-you-can-stamp-out-the-fires-of-chronic-disease
Next month, my digital course will launch and it will help you:
Learn more about the power of your body’s natural healing systems
Develop a deeper awareness of the drivers of the epidemic of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer and more
Get key strategies to implement now, so you don’t suffer the fate of your parents or loved ones
Reduce your risk of a heart attack because you’ve addressed the root causes
Get your cravings under control so you can lose weight and put diabetes behind you
Clear your brain fog and get a plan in place to prevent dementia
Develop an action plan to take to your doctor for testing.
So stay tuned! By addressing these root causes of chronic disease now, you can create a life you’ll love living!
A Sante … To Your Health!
Dr. Sally
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