Dietitian Brigid Titgemeier lays out seven non-negotiable principles for managing chronic inflammation. She argues that supplements cannot replace a real anti-inflammatory diet, that GLP-1 drugs need solid nutrition to work, and that waist circumference matters more than weight. One client's inflammation marker dropped from 40 to 10 in months with the right diet.
7 hills I'll die on when it comes to inflammation as a dietitian who has read thousands of labs. Let's get into it. Number 1: Chronic inflammation is a primary driver of nearly every single symptom in chronic disease that most women claim on just getting older. Number 2: You can't supplement your way out of an inflammatory diet. Now, when you have joint pain and a foggy brain and you're not able to sleep at night, it's tempting to jump to the latest fancy supplements. I am not anti-supplements at all, but Supplements cannot replace consistency with the nutrition and exercise protocol. Pill number 3, a GLP-1, should never be used without a real nutrition protocol. I have a big problem with you going to your doctor and saying, I eat pretty healthy, and then your doctor saying, okay, since you're not seeing results, let's jump to a medication. I am not anti-medication, but with these medications, a nutrition protocol becomes even more important in order to prevent some of the most common side effects, which are things like increases in muscle loss, nutrient deficiencies, constipation, and hair loss. Hill number 4: I eat pretty healthy is very subjective. Now hear me out on this. I regularly hear women say to me, I eat pretty healthy, but I'm still having symptoms. And eating pretty healthy is not the same as eating in a way that helps to decrease your inflammation, improve your insulin sensitivity, and support your gut microbes. So if you're still having symptoms, this could be one of the reasons why. Hill number 5: You can't fully balance your hormones when you're inflamed. Now there's a bidirectional relationship here. Inflammation can drive more hormonal imbalances, but then at the same time, as estrogen levels are falling— estrogen is an anti-inflammatory hormone— as estrogen levels go down, inflammation can go up. Here's what I want you to know: even HRT works better in conjunction with an anti-inflammatory blood sugar balanced diet. Pill number 6: your waist circumference is actually a better predictor than the number on the scale when it comes to your overall risk of disease. Increases in visceral fat and belly fat are a stronger indicator of inflammation than your total body weight. And Hill number 7: leaky gut is an underlying driver of inflammation. For decades, conventional medicine has been arguing that leaky gut is not a real thing. This is the perfect example. The absence of proof was never proof of absence. And as a bonus, inflammation is reversible. I had a client who had an hs-CRP of 40, which is one of the highest numbers I've ever seen, go from 40 to a 20 in a 6-week period of time, down to a 10 in just a few months. Women that I work with regularly report better insulin sensitivity, lower levels of inflammation without being obsessively restricted. And I want you to know that it's never too late to start.
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