Heart to Heart with Hads

The Hidden Health Problem No One Talks About Until It's Too Late

• Hadlea Shaw

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What if the headaches, joint pain, fatigue, and weight issues you've been struggling with aren't actually separate problems, but symptoms of the same hidden culprit? Inflammation silently damages your body long before you notice anything's wrong, and by then, it's often developed into chronic disease.

This eye-opening episode dives into the science behind inflammation and why it's at the root of nearly every modern health crisis. You'll discover how everyday exposures to environmental toxins, processed foods high in omega-6 fatty acids, and even chronic stress trigger inflammatory cascades throughout your body. More importantly, you'll learn exactly how these mechanisms work - from the stress signals carried by cytokines to the crucial difference between inflammatory PGE2 and protective PGE3 compounds.

The Standard American Diet keeps millions locked in a state of chronic inflammation, but small shifts in your omega fatty acid balance can create profound healing. I share why popping ibuprofen and Tylenol actually damages your gut barrier (creating more inflammation!) and why natural alternatives like turmeric and omega-3s address the root cause instead of masking symptoms. You'll understand why that bottle of household cleaner making you sneeze is a warning sign your body is detecting toxins, and how these accumulate over decades.

With 60-80% of your immune system housed in your gut, learning how to protect this crucial barrier becomes essential for reducing whole-body inflammation. I outline specific inflammatory markers to discuss with your doctor, practical nutrition strategies that can transform your health within three months, and why nutrition isn't some alternative approach - it's the literal foundation of life. Whether you're battling chronic health issues or want to prevent them, this episode provides a functional medicine roadmap to understanding and resolving inflammation at its source.

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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Heart to Heart with Hats. We're going to do a little bit of health topic series going on as well, so I'm going to start doing two podcast episodes a week. We're going to do health and we're also going to do more mindset stuff. So, exciting, today we're going to be talking about inflammation, and inflammation, I feel like, is one of the hidden health problems that nobody talks about until it's too freaking late. So let's just go ahead and jump right in. First of all, we need to know what is inflammation. So, basically, how I interpret inflammation is our bodies, how our body responds to an attack on the immune system. So these attacks can come from things like prolonged stress in the body, from things such as food toxins, environmental toxins, overtraining under eating, gi issues that have been there for a long time, infection, autoimmune disease conditions, etc. Etc. Etc. Like the list could go on and on and on. So the five potential you know root causes of inflammation, kind of like I said, are infection, environmental toxins. Environmental toxins I mean things inside of your environment, I mean endocrine disruptors, things that are going to get into your bloodstream, or even things like chemicals inside of the air, things like, you know, weed killer, roundup, things like that that are outside fertilizer. All of these things are all environmental toxins Pesticides from foods, from cleaning products, the ingredients that are in those. I don't know if you've ever cleaned your house or used Febreze or Pledge or something, or you're cleaning and you're sneezing all of a sudden. That's because these things probably have some type of ingredients in them that are causing some sort of allergic reaction like you're getting from sneezing. Now, it's not a huge thing, because you're not like wheezing or anything like that, but those strong chemicals, those toxins, if those get into your bloodstream, if you inhale them, if you get them on your skin, things like that, if they get into your system and into your organs over time, that can cause buildup. And then same with beauty products as well, things you're putting on your face, things you're putting inside of your skin, even vaccines, which we're not going to get into vaccines, because that's just not. I don't chat a lot about vaccines, but I I do think that there are, that some of them do cause effects that are harmful to the body and we just won't get into that. But that's just my own preference, and there has been a lot of research shown around environmental or in vaccines that can cause toxin overload. So that's all I'm going to say about that.

Speaker 1:

But when we're talking about infection, this can be, you know, infection from any sort of type of different things Sinus, you know, anything that you feel like would infect your body. Autoimmune diseases so we're talking about, you know, any type of Hashimoto's, which is thyroid, hypothyroid. We're talking about things like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis there's so many different things autoimmune wise. That could be going on. And then talking about allergens as well. So any sort of food allergens and prolonged stress, and prolonged stress can come from lots of different things. So we won't we will probably get into that in a little bit but and another thing too, is just trauma. So any sort of trauma that is built up or has happened in the past, built up in the body, that truthfully affects you and can can bring on some inflammation later on down the line.

Speaker 1:

One thing that I was thinking of yesterday inside of my head was that just because you aren't seeing the things happening inside of your body right now, they're not affecting you right now, doesn't mean that they won't later, and I think that's something that people don't really realize is just because you're not seeing it right, you're not seeing it right now. Say, oh my gosh, like I'm eating fast food a couple times a week and like nothing's happening to me. I'm still fine, I'm still healthy, I'm Okay. Just because it's not, you're not seeing it, doesn't mean that it's not going on inside of your body. These things take time. They build up inside of your body over time and then they hit you at once and you're like all right, why do I feel like crap now? And it's because you didn't pay attention back when it mattered. And so now, that's why you're dealing with these sort of things.

Speaker 1:

Smoking, alcohol, all of these things trigger inflammation and, like I said, you might not see now, but you will. So, essentially, inflammation, too, also comes from pain, but inflammation is when we're exposed to things, like I've already said, toxins, poor food choices, emotional, physical stress and overtraining things. Like I've already said, toxins, poor food choices, emotional, physical stress and overtraining these triggers is what can cause our body to send out stress signals using molecules called cytokines I think that's how you say them. This is all stuff that I've been learning within becoming a functional health coach, and so I'm just going to continue to share my knowledge on all of it. So basically, I'm just kind of going over my assignment and um what I put inside of my assignment. So if it sounds like I'm reading off something, it's these are my own words. It's just what I've been doing with my own assignments, like I said.

Speaker 1:

So, like I said um, the triggers that cause our body to send out these stress signals use molecules called cytokines. So cytokines carry, carries, those messages to our cells and the cells then respond by activating DNA which create inflammation messengers. These messengers are meant to help with healing, but when there are too many they can make inflammation worse. So one of the main messengers is called COX2, c-o-x-2, and moves through the body and connects with different fatty acids from the food that we eat. Arachidonic acid is a common fatty acid that increases inflammation. It comes from foods high in omega-6 fatty acids, like fried foods and processed oils. So when the COX-2, one of those messengers, joins with the arachidonic acid, it creates more pain, more stiffness and poor recovery. This is because it leads to the production of something called PGE-2, which is linked to pain and inflammation. On the other hand, oleanolic acid, which is found in omega-3 rich foods like salmon, olive oil, chia seeds, avocados this leads to less inflammation. It helps the body create the PGE3, which does not cause as much pain or damage. So the PGE2 is what does cause potential inflammation, pain and whatnot, but the PGE3 does not cause as much pain or damage and we get. The PGE3 is created by omega-3s.

Speaker 1:

So the typical American diet, the standard American diet, has a very high ratio of omega-6s to omega-3 fats, which keeps the body in an inflamed state. So to reduce inflammation, it's important to eat the fewer foods that are high in omega-3 fats, which keeps the body in an inflamed state. So to reduce inflammation, it's important to eat the fewer foods that are high in omega-6s and more foods that are rich in omega-3. This is why I make all my clients take omega-3 fatty acids. So it's not about cutting carbs, it's not about changing. It's not about cutting carbs. It is changing about the types of fats that we eat. So shifting the balance can take some time, but after about three months of consistent changes with this and I will say to like consistently taking your omega three fatty acids can help your body see consistent changes about the body, can begin to feel and heal. So feel better and heal. So some things that you can do to kind of help reduce pain is increase your omega-3 fatty acids. So this means we're going to do things like avocado, salmon, olive oil avocado oil is good, like I said chia seeds, black seeds, all these things. So basically eating a diet that's similar to the Mediterranean diet.

Speaker 1:

A couple of other things you can take too is obviously omega-3. Ala ala is usually an omega-3 type of supplement. Turmeric this is this one is huge as well. Turmeric helps with inflammation, so you can use turmeric like the actual plant and you know, grate it onto your food or whatever season your food with with it. Or you can also just take the turmeric curcumin supplement, which is what I take every morning, especially if I'm after a bad night of sleep or if I'm feeling inflamed, and a lot of times too, when people are dealing with things like cramps and just feeling puffy and not feeling well, like have a headache. Instead of Tylenol or something like that I'm going to definitely take, I'm definitely going to suggest turmeric. So I always make all of my clients keep turmeric on hand, just because I feel like it's so much more natural than Tylenol and ibuprofen.

Speaker 1:

Know, however, you want to say nas ids um, how that can affect your body in a negative way. So we'll be talking about that in a second. But another thing, too, that you should do is cut out processed foods. I am tired of just saying cut out processed foods. But this is so real. Eat real food, food that comes from the earth, things that the earth literally made. I'm not talking about your protein bars and things like that. I'm talking about real, whole, dense foods, things that are real. You can find them in nature. Okay, that's all I have to say about that.

Speaker 1:

One another thing, too, is reducing your toxins and chemicals from your life. Like we already mentioned, the environmental toxins. If you are in a poor relationship, those mental things, if your job, those things if you truthfully want to feel good, you have to be willing to make changes and remove certain things out of your life. You have to be able to change your. Changing your lifestyle just doesn't just mean changing what you eat, what you put in your mouth. It means how you feel, the people you surround yourself with, the things you're doing on a day-to-day basis. These all your environment affects your, your health. It really really does. Your overall health is determined by everything inside of your environment, not just the food you eat and not just your exercise. There's so so much more that goes into it. Okay, cool.

Speaker 1:

Now we're going to talk about the difference between the NASID and um and skirms. So there, there are two different types of things. Skirms are um. They help, basically, they're in favor of your health, they're taking from plant sources and provide support for strong gut barrier protection. But NASIDS block production of inflammatory prostaglandins by the inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2. And let me explain what that means in further detail.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to go back to that article that I learned about with inflammation, for, let's see for my course. So I'm going to explain what it kind of said. I'm pulling up my. It's something that I still am trying to grasp and learn, but we're going to talk about, okay so SCRMS. Scrms are selective kinase response modulators and they provide support for strong gut barrier and they don't affect many pathways and cause undesirable physiological responses. So this is why they're better than say, nasids physiological responses. So this is why they're better than say nas ids, and I'm going to explain why here in a second once I'm pulling up my. Pulling up, my pulling up, okay so anti, they're basically anti-inflammatories that's what they're called.

Speaker 1:

Anti-inflammatory drugs can cause leaky gut and leaky gut causes inflammation. So the brain, kidney, pancreas, intestines and blood vessels are all can all be affected negatively by the prolonged use of anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, tylenol. They just have very negative health effects like bleeding ulcers, heart attacks, kidney damage, specifically kidney damage that's one of the bigger ones that is affected by it. So that's what I have to say about that and they have a whole thing on it. But it's a traditional treatment for inflammation and it does block the production of inflammatory prostaglandins by inhibition of coccyx enzymes, which I had already said. I had already said, um, and when I, when we talked a little bit ago, um, like any acetaminophen, the, the anti-inflammatories cause leaky gut and leaky gut causes inflammation. But it depletes glutathione in your body, which glutathione is very, very important for overall function, um, nerve function in your body, building muscle, repairing. Glutathione is good for repairing and acetaminophen is. We're not repairing anything if we're using that because it's breaking and depleting glutathione. It compromises your brain function and increases the risk of making cognitive mistakes, blunt emotions, both positive and negative.

Speaker 1:

And women who took it. There's a 20,. There's a study done in 2014 that women who took it during pregnancy were more likely to have children medicated for ADHD by age seven. Let me say that again, women who took it during pregnancy were more likely to have children medicated for ADHD by age seven. So, like I said as well, the chronic use of it damages the GI lining, and so I haven't. I don't remember the last time that I've taken a Tylenol or ibuprofen or anything like that. Just, you won't catch me, you will not get me taking that at all at all. Anyway, so getting back into what we were talking about, inflammation also leads to chronic disease, and chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, bowel disease, copd, these things.

Speaker 1:

Inflammation causes all of these things inside of your body, and some inflammatory markers you can see on labs is CRP. So CRP, it detects increases within the normal range. That doesn't make sense. I'm reading off here oh my gosh, I need to pause because my phone is going off, so I'm back. Basically, crp determines your risk of cardiovascular event happening in the future. Another thing, too, is ferritin. This is the stored iron levels inside of your body, and it increases with inflammation inside of the body as well.

Speaker 1:

Homocysteine is an amino acid. If that's high, if it's severe or high um, it's often because there's some sort of vitamin b deficiency, b6, b12, folate these are key vitamins in metabolism of homocysteine. And then esr, which I had never heard of before taking this course, and it measures how quickly your your red blood cell counts settle. So the faster they settle means more inflammation. So if you're a woman under 50, a good number for that is 20 mm over HR Normal. I don't quite know what that means. See, I'm very still learning in the process of this. I'm level 1 certified in the process of this. This is level. I'm level one certified and this is level two certified. I'm not level two certified yet, but level one, functional health coach. And then level two goes more into, like all of these things which are a lot more in depth, that I'm still learning. So I just turned in my assignment for this. So that's why I thought it would be good for me to kind of review and do these things to help me kind of learn them as I go as well. So let's see here.

Speaker 1:

Oh, another thing I want to talk about too is lipotoxicity. So this is ectopic fat accumulation in different tissues and organs in your body, and these things lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, so just like inability to lose body fat. And now, obviously, what causes this Standard American diet, which also makes changes to your gut microbiome, increase gut toxicity, gut microbiome, increased gut toxicity, which reduces the integrity of the gut lining. So it's a cascade of effects. Let me just I'm going to read down this like step stool thing that it has is so toxic chemicals lead to loss of immune tolerance, imbalance, which leads to imbalance, gut microbiome and gut inflammation, which goes down to loss of gut integrity, which goes down to cell mediated immune response, which goes down into cross-reaction, very tissue with various tissue antigens, which goes down into loss of blood brain barrier integrity, which then goes into multi-organ tissue inflammation and auto immunity disease. So basically, toxic chemicals, toxic food, goes into immune, then immune goes into multi-organ tissue inflammation and autoimmunity disease. So basically, toxic chemicals, toxic food, goes into immune, then immune goes into gut. So that's why we say your gut is like the powerhouse of everything in it. Even to like your gut is the the like, the star in the cascade.

Speaker 1:

What causes the inflammation? Like 60 to 80% of your immune system is in the gut. This is what helps identify. This helps the body identify what should or should not enter the circulatory system. There is also lymph nodes in the GI tract that allow immune cells to be triggered in the GI and circulate through the entire body, to be triggered in the GI and circulate through the entire body. Transmigration of antigens across the GI barrier may trigger a systemic immune response.

Speaker 1:

So if you're dealing with immune issues, you got to go back to your gut. Everything always goes back to the gut, same with hormone issues Gut, brain, gut, brain, gut, brain, gut Literally. Brain, gut, brain, gut, brain, gut Literally. This is why I stress the importance of nutrition, because nutrition is literally the only thing that can change it. Nutrition and managing your stress. Nutrition is not some sort of alternative medicine, it's literally the foundation of life.

Speaker 1:

So, anyways, we'll get back into the scurms. So the scurms are very important for overall reducing inflammation. Also, spms. So SPMs are pro-resolving mediators. These are naturally occurring. This is the EPA and DHA, the fish oil, basically that we were talking about. They can help reduce pain and promote tissue repair. They support the clearance of inflammatory components, which resolve inflammatory process. They remove a pap tautic cells. They enhance um, how well, how able you are to kill bacteria.

Speaker 1:

So long-term here, focusing inflammation, the best thing we can do is get back into a whole food diet manage our stress. I think everything literally results back down to that. Omega-3s these are good. We need our body to have omega-3 fatty acids. Now these can come from food or supplement. I do like supplement better because I do feel like we're you would have to be getting in a certain amount of fish to fully get that in. But avocado every day can definitely help as well.

Speaker 1:

And just a little bonus too on, if you're dealing with some sort of like injury, the best thing you can do, um, is, for one, do some sort of a short-term sort of detox support to help kind of get the liver, get the liver in a good spot. And then you want to. You want to have some sort of pain reliever. That's not a, like I said, um, anti-inflammatory drug like ibuprofen or tylenol. We want something. There's a supplement called inflavonoid which is used to help decrease pain. There's a blend of turmeric and some other adaptogenic herbs that can help with that, and then cortis, which is another, has some adaptogens in it as well to help um at night, to help calm down sleep. But long-term thing, keep diet and check with a mediterranean style, keep in movement that doesn't cause pain. This is for if you're injury wise, and then keep in the pain supplement, the inflavonoid intensive too, or the core ease if needed, just to help with that calming. Those are things that can stay in maintenance wise.

Speaker 1:

But hopefully this kind of gives you a good picture on kind of what inflammation looks like and how you can make changes. I tried to incorporate some things that were uh, what's the word I'm saying here that are that are that are easy to do with, like the supplements and lifestyle changes. I think that's definitely a non-negotiable for literally everybody If you don't want to feel like crap all the time. Anyway, so hope you guys enjoyed this episode on inflammation. I'll keep doing some things on learnings. I know I'm not totally 100% sound yet. I'm just still trying to teach back what I've learned so that I can stick with me long term. But yeah, I'll see you guys in the next episode. Bye.