This is a podcast episode of "Ask the Health Expert" by JJ Virgin in which the host answers a listener’s question: “How do I test to see if I'm inflamed?” JJ Virgin identifies highly sensitive C‑reactive protein (HS‑CRP) as a primary lab marker for systemic inflammation and recommends monitoring body composition (total and visceral fat) and extracellular vs intracellular water—using consumer Tanita scales for relative tracking or more advanced body‑composition testing for accuracy. She also outlines dietary strategies to reduce inflammation, referencing her “Virgin diet” elimination list (gluten, dairy, corn, egg, soy, peanuts, sugar, artificial sweeteners), and emphasizes measuring changes (e.g., daily weigh‑ins for body water shifts). The transcript also contains multiple sponsor segments (Earth Breeze, Wayfair, Monarch, Buffalo Trace, Ray‑Ban/Meta) and a closing subscribe call.
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How do I test to see if I'm Inflamed? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Patsy from Facebook asks, how do I test to see if I'm inflamed? All right, Patsy, there's a simple test and then there's something you can monitor on a more regular basis and I will be right back to share some ideas.
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Okay, so there's two different things that you can look at, and one is a lab test called highly sensitive C reactive protein, and that is really that marker in your body of overall inflammation. And one of the things that I've seen is that it tends to go up with body fat. Now, I think that if we were really looking at total body fat and we could really understand where the visceral fat was, that's fat surrounding the organs, we'd find that the higher that type of fat is, the higher the highly sensitive CRP is. But remember, fat is not this benign thing on our body. It is its own hormonal organ and engine. And a lot of times, and especially more in the visceral fat, it can drive up what are called inflammatory cytokines. So that's one thing that you can look at. You can look at your body fat and your visceral fat, and you can monitor that on a regular basis using a Tanita scale that you can buy at home. You know, you can buy it from Amazon, use it at home. Now, is it the most accurate thing? No, but it's giving you relative changes, and what you monitor and measure, you can improve. The other thing that you can look at is your intracellular and extracellular water. Now, this is something you'll probably need to go do with a more expensive body composition test. So extracellular water is the water that's not inside the cells, and then there's intracellular water. It's the water inside the cells. From that, you get your total body water. But what you want to make sure of is that you're not having this big increase in extracellular water, because that's where the swelling can be, and it can be an issue. So you can actually tell this with one of these scales that looks at extracellular water and total body water. So you can monitor it. Right. And by the way, researchers believe that increased extracellular water is a key element in increased body fat. And we know increased body fat can increase inflammation. So this is another thing that you.
Can be looking at.
What do we know about reducing inflammation, making an oil change, shifting from more pro inflammatory down fats to the cleaner, healthier fats, especially Those rich in omega 3s like cold water fish, and then getting rid of the high five foods in the diet. I talk about that in the virgin diet, gluten, dairy, corn, egg, soy, peanuts, sugar and artificial sweeteners. Going through a process of swapping those out for healing foods and then going back and seeing if they create a response within your body or not. Are they causing any of that? Of course, sugar can be a major culprit. And when I'm having someone go back and challenge, I'm having them step on the scale every day to see if they have a big shift in that total body water, which would be coming from extracellular water, which would be indicating that there's some inflammat. So yeah, it's a little complicated. I think a great place to start is looking at body composition and looking at HSCRP and then monitoring as you go and improving that. Again, what you measure and monitor, you can improve, right? This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I answer your questions weekly. Plus I interview the top experts in health and wellness. So make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetoj.com yep, it's that easy. I'll see you next time.
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