By Dr. Frank Sabatino

Healing in all living things is a ceaseless, biological process that is as constant as the daily sunrise, or the earth turning on its axis. This process is supported by your appropriation of basic lifestyle requirements including whole plant nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, proper hydration, sunlight, emotional support, and stress reduction. As a result, health is truly built by healthful living. So that health and disease are not things or commodities but rather conditions, under physiological control and homeostasis of the body, that result from daily choices that either provide the requirements of health or promote obstacles that create a lack of well being and ease, dis-ease.

Unfortunately, the typical medical model of health care sees disease as a thing to be attacked by drugs and surgery, focusing on the treatment of symptoms and the drug management of disease rather than addressing the true causes of dysfunction. Yet, while we are spending trillions of dollars on the annual health care budget in the US, the bulk of this money is being spent on conditions (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity) that are best resolved by better lifestyle choices of whole plant food, activity, and stress reduction.

This has led to the proposal of a “damage hypothesis” suggesting that the quality and extent of your health and aging are a direct result of the damage and toxicity created by your routine choices over time. Fundamental to this damage is the extent of inflammation you create and maintain in your life.

It is important to realize that the inflammatory process is a natural, healthy activity of the immune system that plays a major role in protection and recovery from injury and infection. However, when conditions of irritation and cell damage are maintained consistently by food and other lifestyle factors, inflammation becomes chronic and will promote more damage over time. It has been suggested that chronic inflammation is a hallmark of all chronic disease and biological aging. (1)

There are several lifestyle factors that contribute to chronic ongoing inflammation. While excessive stress and sleep deficiency inspire hormonal changes that promote damaging inflammation, poor nutritional choices may be the most important. The typical diet for many Americans is 50-60% processed/ultraprocessed food, 30-40% cooked/processed animal products, and less than 5% fruits and vegetables. These foods have excesses of amino acids, salt, saturated and trans fatty acids, and refined sugar that have a hyper-acidifying effect in the body that promotes metabolic acidosis, chronic irritation and eventually chronic inflammation.

A routine diet of fresh fruits, vegetables whole grains and legumes, including seeds and nuts (walnuts, flax, chia, and hemp seeds) is more alkalinizing and anti-inflammatory, and is rich in anti-inflammatory essential fatty acids that also significantly reduce irritation and inflammation. The typical animal-based/processed, high fat, low fiber diet also disturbs the flora of the gut to favor organisms that significantly increase inflammation and damage to the gut, promoting a compromise of the immune system and a variety of toxic and autoimmune conditions.(2)

The chronic inflammation associated with the routine and consistent eating of the typical American diet can damage cells and organs throughout the body, including the endothelial cells that line blood vessels in the heart, brain and other vital organs. The immune system will target the inflamed blood vessels with white blood cells called macrophages that gobble up LDL-cholesterol in the area of vessel damage to produce fatty foam cells that constrict and block the flow of blood.

In addition, damaged endothelial cells that line blood vessels can not effectively convert the amino acid L-arginine into nitric oxide that dilates blood vessels to enhance blood flow to organs and tissues. This blockage restricts blood and available oxygen that causes a loss of function and eventually the death of cells that contribute to heart disease, brain disease, erectile dysfunction and a panorama of disease and dysfunction wherever this process occurs. So we can make the case that chronic inflammation is part of a process including irritation, inflammation, blockage of blood/oxygen supply, loss of function, and death of cells and organs that are fundamental to all disease.

A diverse, whole plant diet provides the most powerful foods to regulate and tame the process of inflammation and gives you the greatest opportunity to reduce dangerous chronic inflammation, pain and disease in your life.

References

1. Franceschi C et al. Inflammaging and ‘Garb-aging’. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, March, 2017;28(3):199-212.
2. Tomova A, et al. The effects of vegetarian and vegan diets on gut microbiota. Frontiers in Nutrition, April, 2019 Vol 6 article 47.