The One Cause of ALL Inflammation may sound like a trick topic, but it’s not. This is super critical for understanding how to be healthy and to stop inflammation.
SO what is the main cause of inflammation in the body? Your immune system causes inflammation. Nothing else causes inflammation.
That is worth repeating. Your immune system is the one thing that can cause inflammation and symptoms of inflammation.
Something has to trigger your immune system to create inflammation. And it’s either an injury, or something that your immune system wants to fight. Why is this important? Because almost EVERY HEALTH PROBLEM HUMANS EXPERIENCE is because of INFLAMMATION. From IBS, to Alzheimer’s, to cancer, to joint pain, headaches, to autoimmune diseases, even osteoporosis (low bone density) you name it. At its core it’s all about inflammation.
The goal then, if we want to be healthy, and if we want to optimize our health, is to NOT stimulate our immune system to trigger inflammation except when absolutely necessary, and only for a very short time. We don’t want any chronic inflammatory triggers in our system. Taking drugs to suppress the immune system isn’t the cure, and it’s a very temporary solution with all kinds of side effects. So, if we want to truly get to the bottom of all chronic disease, then we need to ask ourselves, what is triggering the immune system to create this inflammatory response?
Understanding that the causes of symptoms of chronic inflammation start with the immune system is the foundation for understanding how to stop inflammation. In my next video in this series on inflammation, I’ll talk about what triggers the immune system to generate inflammation.
Dr. Wangen is the founder and medical director of the IBS Treatment Center, the award winning author of two books, and a nationally recognized speaker on digestive disorders. He has been on ABC, NBC, and Fox as well as public radio, and was named one of Seattle’s Top Doctors by Seattle Magazine.