Blog Posts and Articles

This post is an installment in our 52 Health Hinges series. Remember, “Small hinges swing big doors.”

I’m sure that I’m not the first one to tell you to eat more vegetables, reduce processed foods, and cut back on sugar. But many don’t understand why these tips work to improve your health.

Today, I want to talk about one of my personal favorite “whys”…taming inflammation.

Inflammation can be a good thing. If you hit your finger with a hammer, your body will have an inflammatory response to help bring nourishment and support to heal your injury. It’s actually quite amazing what our bodies can do to heal themselves, isn’t it?

But today, we’re going to talk about a different kind of inflammation…silent inflammation.

Dr. Barry Sears describes silent inflammation as:

“Inflammation that falls below the threshold of perceived pain. That’s what makes it so dangerous. You don’t take any steps to stop it as it smolders for years, if not decades, eventually erupting into what we call chronic disease.”

Inflammation is a predecessor to many degenerative diseases, including heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, autoimmunity (including Hashimoto’s), and diabetes. 

The functional medicine community is in agreement that autoimmunity and inflammation are kissing cousins – they fan the flames of one another. 

Understanding silent inflammation now, and adopting many of the anti-inflammatory Health Hinges I’ve shared with you so far, will reduce your likelihood in developing disease – and can help manage disease or heal if you’ve already been diagnosed.

If you understand WHY I’m suggesting all of the hinge tips, it might make it easier to make lasting change.

Our Healthful Elements founder, Jill Grunewald, penned a great article about silent inflammation that I’d love to pull from our articles archive.

You can learn about the basics of taming inflammation here.