308- The Link Between Chronic Disease and Inflammation

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now, here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode, we're, we're talking about the, in my opinion, surprising link between chronic inflammation, chronic disease and also how you can address this and make an impact in your practice. It's a pretty big topic. We're gonna go over the high, high level concepts on today's episode and I wanna really try to keep it as practical as possible for the action steps that you can take in your practice to really help people dramatically change their lives. I think when we talk about chronic inflammation and chronic disease, it might seem a little tangential to what we do when we deliver an adjustment. But I want to talk about really the direct steps that we can take to make a huge impact. Before I get started, I want to say a few words about Novopulse. This is a tool that is square. Recovery meets performance. If you have not checked it out, please do so. Novo pulse.com recovery novo-pulse.com recovery I'll drop that link down in the show notes. Click over and check it out. If you have a recovery based practice, a performance based practice, this is a tool that you probably want to check out. Super unique on the market. It does some really interesting things. And again, speaking with their founder, I never spoken to anybody in my life that knows more about inflammation ironically than he does. So please check it out. Novopulse.com recovery but as I said at the top on today's episode, let's talk some chronic disease and chronic inflammation. This is a topic that's come up and it's going to be part of what we do at the Smart Chiropractor as our December content campaign. And as I was just building out some of the content, I really took a step back and said this is a conversation that really needs to happen on this podcast. And it's a conversation that all of us need to become intimately familiar with as chirofractors. Because at this point, there is no question that chronic inflammation is fueling the explosion of chronic disease. And you want to hear a shocking stat? It's estimated that nearly half of all adults, nearly half of all adults have at least one chronic disease and up to 40% have two or more chronic diseases going on right now. That absolutely floored me and A lot of it stems back to chronic inflammation. Well, guess what? When we, when we spin back chronic inflammation a little bit, the primary factors involved in chronic inflammation are lifestyle factors. So getting out there and having this conversation, as a chiropractor in your community, I can't think of a more important conversation that you could start getting involved in than one that revolves around chronic disease. When we see the stats of over 50% of people have at least one chronic disease, when we see the stats that showcase chronic inflammation directly leads to it, and then we see the data that showcases lifestyle factors drive that inflammation. And those lifestyle factors as we'll talk about and break down, they come down to some very simple things. A lack of exercise and movement changes or inadequate diet, lack of sleep or improper sleep patterns, I guess you could say irregular sleep patterns. Well, if there's anybody out there that can assist patients in understanding this and provide actionable insights into those three items. Moving better, eating better and sleeping better. It's difficult for me to think of a doc outside of a chiropractor that's going to address it as well as we can. And the holidays are creeping up on us. I can't believe it's November already, but it is. And this is the time when even our most health conscious patients fall by the wayside. This is a challenging time. When we think about exercise, diet and sleep habits around the holidays, these are things that kind of go out the window. So I'm going to encourage you to think, think a lot about the topic that we're talking about. Identify those areas where you can have more proactive conversations with your patients around the topics and help guide them throughout this challenge. Because it really, really is a challenge. Chronic pain and all of these chronic inflammatory diseases, they've been linked to things. What are those chronic diseases? The question might be, and they're not pretty, the chronic diseases that can start as a result of chronic inflammation, they range from anything from stroke to cancer to heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders. It leads to insulin resistance, muscle weakness, fatigue. There's even been links to things like fibromyalgia and these inflammatory based conditions where if somebody's in a state of chronic inflammation, they are more likely to suffer, they're more likely to have challenges and compounding issues. Right. We see that almost everybody that has one chronic disease has two. So this is something that you wanna get out there and lead the conversation around about simple lifestyle changes. And the bottom line is if somebody in your practice or coming into your practice or just in your community is in pain, well, guess what happens? They're not moving very well. They're not moving probably as much as they should. They're probably have. There's a big correlation between depression, dietary challenges, lack of sleep, and chronic pain. So this is all kind of one conversation. Chronic disease, chronic pain, chronic inflammation, this is all one big conversation that, that can be dramatically altered by moving more, eating, right, and getting enough sleep, getting that rest and recovery. And of course, if we trace it back and say, well, what is chronic inflammation at the root level? Chronic inflammation is when there's that sort of sub level of inflammation going on 24 7, right? There's acute inflammation and chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation happens, of course, after there's been an injury, a toxin, an immediate event that stimulates your body to say, gosh, we gotta take care of business. Acute inflammation, redness, swelling, all of those things that you know about could have a little bit of pain associated with it as well. But that's a normal part of the process. That's a great thing. Flood those white blood cells to the area. Let's take care of this toxin, this injury, let's mitigate it, let's get it outta here, let's get back to homeostasis. That's a normal part of life, and it's a great part of life because it's essential to the healing process. However, chronic inflammation sneaks in with when the body doesn't shut off. When those white blood cells continue to flood your system and what occurs is that they can actually turn on and start attacking healthy tissue. This is why chronic inflammation is so varied in how its signs or symptoms may manifest is that it's going to. Those blood cells can start attacking the healthy tissue. So that could be at an organ level, it could be at a system level, it could be a cellular level, it be, could. It could be all of the above. And that creates then a decreased subsequent immune response. And it can create significant challenges to that organ tissue and system, which it can get really, really complex. We're talking cytokines, we're talking tls, we're talking white blood cells, we're talking about all of those items. But at the base level, the reversal of these things gets back to those simple lifestyle habits. Making sure that you're moving enough, making sure that you're eating right, and making sure that you're getting enough sleep. Now here's something I found interesting in the literature. I think this was in the Harvard paper that I was looking at, and it was talking about the fact that when there is Chronic inflammation. There's a couple things that come about. We talked about chronic disease, long term heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, all linked with long term chronic inflammation. But there also are these things that come on earlier. One is the immune system function. It's decreased immune system function. When you have chronic inflammation going on, your immune system is not able to function at its highest level. I don't think there's anybody out there right now that's not interested in having their immune system function at the highest level possible. And when you have chronic inflammation, you're not moving right, you're not eating right, you're not getting enough sleep, you are decreasing your immune system's capacity to work appropriately. Second part about it is there's sort of this one weird, I guess sign or symptom, I'm not sure which one, I'd say, But you can develop sickness behaviors is what they call them. And these include things like fatigue, increased blood pressure, insulin resistance, not eating enough food, decreased food intake. So when somebody has chronic inflammation, they tend to exhibit the sickness behaviors again, fatigue, blood pressure issues, insulin resistance, and decreased food intake. This is what starts that vicious cycle. I think you can see where, where there's chronic disease sits at the tail end of all this. Doesn't happen overnight, right? Takes time for those disease processes to start and manifest. However, in the interim, you sort of maybe have this acute injury and then you have lifestyle changes, right? Somebody who has been, we've all seen this. Somebody had been healthy and active, they struggle and suffer with an injury, and all of a sudden they gain a lot of weight. Really, their lifestyle takes a toll. We've all seen that in practice. That's one way that this can start. The other way is a person never really was active. And ultimately they never really were active. They've had bad habits since they were a kid. And now as a teenager, as an adolescent, as an adult, or even as a senior, these things have started to take their toll. So I view this as a continuum, right? At some point before chronic inflammation happens, there is either habits or injury that contributed to it. Then the habits manifest it. Then the chronic disease process begins and takes time to really come to fruition. So if we trace all of this back, I know this is a lot of information we're throwing out at once, but if we trace all of this back, especially as we're heading into these holidays, I think all of us as chiropractors should take a step back and say, okay, let's get back to the fundamentals. Blocking and tackling table stakes, as they say, right? How do we get back to these core concepts of moving is good and you should move every single day. You've heard me talk about it. Segmental motion, regional motion, whole body motion, that's what we're after. That's what's going to help you stay as active as possible. Number two, eating right is important. You can't out move your mouth, so whatever you're putting in your body matters a heck of a lot. So let's focus on fruits and vegetables. Let's focus on antioxidant foods. Let's focus on anti inflammatory rather than pro inflammatory foods. Let's decrease that sugar. Watch those carbs. You don't need to go crazy with this. However, there's some very simple things like I just outlined that'll help move you in the right direction. And then the third part about it is, hey, I know traveling, I know people coming into town. You going out of town during this holiday season, you know, can be a challenge with your sleep patterns. Now I just want you to keep in mind that when you sleep, that is when your body rests and recovers. And if it doesn't have enough time to do so, it's difficult slash impossible to catch up the next day. So patient. I'm going to encourage you to do a couple things over the next month or so and keep this in mind throughout the holidays. One, stay as active as possible. If you are struggling to stay active due to pain due to movement issues, let us know and get in here. Let's make sure we have your next appointment scheduled. Number two, I'm gonna encourage you to eat right again. We talked about those foods really quickly. Get those leafy green vegetables, watch out for the sugar and the carbs. You eat that balanced diet that we all know what it is, but keep an eye on it doesn't mean you can't have a little bit of fun. But watch it and make sure these things don't stack up day after day and ensure that you're getting enough rest. Not every day you're gonna probably get as much rest as you'd love to, but ensure that you're getting as much as you can. All of these things will decrease inflammation in your body, which means that you're gonna be less prone to getting sick. You're gonna feel better, you're gonna stay more active and knock on wood, you'll come out of this holiday season not with a yearly cold because your immune system was depreciated, but because you've done the Right things to keep yourself as healthy as possible. I think this is an important conversation that all of us should be having as chiropractors because it ties into those lifestyle factors. And again, inflammation is like that check engine light for your body. It tells you something isn't right. Pay attention. If it's an acute injury, well, hopefully that's going to take care of itself with the proper functioning body and system. However, if things stick around, chronic inflammation can lead to chronic disease. You want to nip that as soon as you can or never let it start in an ideal case. So hopefully there's been some tactical tips, statements, scripting. If you want to say that you can take from this episode and utilize with your patients. I also think it's important. Again, I'll say it one more time. If somebody can't move correctly or they're in pain, all of this is going to fall apart. They're not going to get the daily exercise, their diet is going to go downhill and that affects their sleep. So this starts with movement. So as chiropractors, I think we are movement based healthcare professionals. Segmental, regional, whole body. So you want to ensure that the building blocks, segmental motion is as good as possible. Good idea to ensure that. Number two, you wanna make sure regional motion's good. That's part of what they do at home with their stretches and exercises and then that whole body exercise. Get that cardiovascular system going, get that immune system as strong as possible and ensure that the body is activated. And that's the way I always think about exercise. So couple take home messages there for you. If you have any feedback on that, hit me up. Jeff the evidencebasedchiropractor.com Also if you have not left us a rating or review on itunes, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. That's how more and more docs find out about this podcast. Totally free. All you have to do is on your phone, swipe down a little bit, give us some stars or even better yet, write a line or two. It is super, super appreciated. And if you've been paying attention listening for a few weeks, I'll give you a little nudge. Please do it. It helps more and more docs find out and it feels really good to know docs out there are listening. Cause I record this at my house looking at a computer and sometimes you don't know who's on the other line. So if you're out there, I would love your feedback on this episode. And and additionally I want to say a few words about E Chiro ehr as we close E Chiro ehr it really can help you create a better lifestyle and improve your practice health. This is built on documentation and compliance. So if those two words light your fire Echiro ehr check them out, see what they have to offer you and your practice. And additionally, I want to say one word about Cairo Matchmakers. If you are looking to hire an associate or if you are looking for a new job opportunity, please head over to Chiromatchmakers.com and check out what we have going on. We have over 150 active and open jobs throughout the United States. Almost everyone is paying more than $85,000 a year right now. So if you're listening to this and you're looking for a new opportunity, connect with us@chiromatchmakers.com Additionally, if you're looking to add somebody onto your team, our recruiters are absolutely fantastic. Our process is built on team assessments, snapshots, understanding your practice, not just throwing up an ad and hoping for the best. You want to make sure you have the right chiropractor in your pract, not just any chiropractor. As we like to say, hiring the wrong person is a six figure mistake. Hiring the right person is a seven figure benefit for your practice. So check out Chiromatchmakers.com if you're looking for some things involved with your team or you're looking for a new position. And I hope to see you next week on a new episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor Podcast. Have a fantastic week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

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