David PerlmutterPresident,, Perlmutter Health Center · Board-Certified Neurologist | Functional Medicine Pioneer | #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author | International Speaker | Host of The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

You’re Missing These Hidden Causes of Inflammation

27 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:12

In this YouTube monologue, Dr. David Perlmutter expands the conversation about inflammation beyond the well‑known influences of diet and sleep. He argues that chronic stress, social isolation, and a lack of exposure to nature act as powerful, often overlooked amplifiers of systemic inflammation that can set the stage for brain degeneration. Perlmutter also highlights a paradox: certain medications meant to reduce inflammation—specifically non‑steroidal anti‑inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and acid‑reducing agents—disrupt the gut microbiome, promote leaky gut, and ultimately increase inflammation throughout the body. The overall message is that while food and sleep are essential, a broader view of lifestyle, social, environmental, and pharmaceutical factors is necessary to keep inflammation under control.

Chapters

The food you eat and the sleep that you get are really important factors that regulate inflammation in your body. Yeah, we get that, but what else is involved here? You know, you got to consider stress. Chronic stress, which really kind of typifies our modern world, is a huge amplifier of inflammation that sets up the brain for degeneration. I think certainly we should look upon lack of social connection and even lack of nature as being responsible for for increasing inflammation. We know that a lot of things we eat that aren't necessarily considered dietary interventions also play a role in inflammation. Even ironically, taking drugs that are designed to reduce inflammation ultimately may increase inflammation in the human body. Things like the nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs actually work, and drugs that reduce stomach acid actually work ultimately to change the gut bacteria, and that sets the stage for a leaky gut, And that is a cardinal event as it relates to increasing inflammation throughout the body. So yeah, food's important and certainly sleep's important, but there are a lot of other factors that we should be thinking about in terms of keeping inflammation under, under control.