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Series Code: MH
Program Code: MH230007S
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00:01 Fire is great when it's burning what you want it to burn
00:04 and you can put it out. 00:05 Some things like water, fire extinguishers, 00:08 and firemen put fire out. 00:10 Other things like gas or wind will only make it hotter. 00:14 When a neighbor's burn pile got out of control, 00:16 it moved into our property and it took airplanes dumping their 00:19 red retardant to put it out. 00:21 I'm Rise, your host in this series. 00:23 And today we're finishing up our section on inflammation. 00:26 We've likened inflammation to fire just to help us understand 00:29 that we can actively ignite it 00:31 or we can put it out and live in health. 00:34 Because that's what we were made for. 00:55 After the last two episodes, I'm like, no wonder we're 00:58 all fired up with inflammation. 01:00 Today, though, you're going to get equipped with some 01:02 anti-inflammatory practical strategies. 01:05 The beautiful part of this is that a lot of this is fixable. 01:10 A lot of this can be reversed with simple measures. 01:13 So as Ayesha put it beautifully, 01:15 inflammation is the body's response. 01:18 And two ways of damaging it: the response itself is exaggerated 01:21 so it attacks the cell and surrounding area; 01:25 and the second way is, the byproducts after the attack 01:28 also are retained so that they become garbage in the space 01:33 that actually interfere with regular transaction in the cell 01:38 and surrounding cells. 01:39 And that's why getting rid of things is important. 01:41 That's why sleep is important. 01:44 But the way out of that is what reduces inflammation. 01:47 Food definitely; good food gets rid of inflammation. 01:51 The elimination of bad food which propagates that further. 01:55 It reduces it and over time eliminates it. 01:58 But things like exercise. 02:00 Why is exercise important? 02:02 Because when you're exercising, you're increasing blood flow 02:06 to the most vascular organ in the body, the brain. 02:09 There are pictures of the brain where they've denuded 02:12 every other structure, and all that's left is vessels. 02:14 And you say, "Wait a second. 02:16 How is there room for anything else? 02:18 Where are the other 87 billion neurons? 02:21 You know, billions and billions of glial cells, 02:24 because it's so vascular. 02:26 So if you're increasing blood flow 02:28 into the brain, what happens? 02:29 The cleansing process happens. 02:31 And also during exercise you have secretion of 02:35 growth hormones, BDNF, brain derived neurotrophic factor, 02:38 which in itself is a potent anti-inflammatory agent. 02:41 We've been married 17 years. 02:42 We finish each other's sentences. 02:44 So, especially when it comes to BDNF, which is important. 02:47 We all get excited about BDNF, yeah. 02:49 So BDNF is growth factor that grows those connections 02:54 and cleanses the brain. 02:55 When you sleep... 02:58 You know, we get invited to talks, these resorts, 03:01 and retreats, and spas, so we give talks. 03:06 We don't get invited often the second time 03:07 because we say, "The most important spa is not the spa. 03:11 The most important is your bedroom. 03:14 Those 7 to 8 hours, if you're getting restorative deep sleep, 03:19 it's literally the most important time of day for you. 03:23 It's more important than your wakefulness. 03:24 What are you doing in wakefulness? 03:25 Going through Instagram? 03:27 With sleep you're cleansing the brain. 03:29 You're cleansing the inflammatory byproducts. 03:31 You're cleansing all the waste. 03:33 And you're fortifying memory. 03:37 Study after study shows that even a couple hours of 03:39 bad sleep, a couple days of bad sleep, 03:41 significantly reduces your attention, your focus, 03:45 and your memory. 03:46 So the sleep period, that sleep period is cleansing. 03:49 So what kind of sleep? 03:51 Deep restorative sleep, where you go through those four cycles 03:55 four to five times a night. 03:57 And the answer to that is not just medication. 03:58 Although we're not against medication short-term. 04:01 But long term it's sleep hygiene, 04:04 cognitive behavioral therapy. 04:06 The kind of mechanisms that allow you to sleep calmly 04:09 and restoratively. 04:11 And that actually is incredibly powerful 04:14 as an anti-inflammatory fightback. 04:16 There's nothing else better than that. 04:18 So there it is: food, exercise, and sleep 04:21 will take care of more than 99% of your inflammatory response. 04:26 That's incredible. 04:27 I want to get excited about BDNF too. 04:30 BDNF stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factor. 04:33 You can see why it's abbreviated. 04:35 This BDNF is very much involved in the inflammatory response. 04:40 It's a fire extinguisher. 04:41 It reduces inflammation. 04:43 Depression and poor brain neuroplasticity 04:45 are actually associated with low levels of BDNF. 04:49 Our body makes this powerful anti-inflammatory 04:52 stuff, but our lifestyle affects how much 04:55 or how little of it we produce. 04:58 Do you remember what Dr. Sherzai said increases BDNF 05:01 Exercise. 05:03 There's also a class of micro-nutrients found in 05:05 plant-based foods called polyphenols that also 05:08 increase BDNF concentrations. 05:10 Polyphenols are found in plant-based foods. 05:12 And some of the plant-based food stars are... 05:24 I can speak from personal experience. 05:28 I suffered with Achilles tendinitis for about 10 years. 05:33 And I wasn't able to run anymore because of it. 05:37 And, I mean, I had all sorts of treatments. 05:40 I had steroid injections, I had what we call PRP 05:44 platelet injections, I had stem-cell injections. 05:47 And all those things were really helpful. 05:50 But it wasn't until I tried the anti-inflammatory 05:53 diet that I was able really to make that pain and inflammation 05:57 go away and stay away. 05:59 Can you give us a picture of what the 06:00 anti-inflammatory diet is? 06:03 Sure. Well when you talk about the anti-inflammatory 06:05 diet, you're not talking about simply avoiding certain foods. 06:11 You're also talking about intentionally incorporating 06:14 certain foods into your diet. 06:16 You know, Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician said, 06:20 "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." 06:24 And for me, it meant doing away with a lot of processed foods, 06:30 you know, staying away from red meat. 06:32 I'm a vegetarian for the most part at this point. 06:35 I try to eat a whole food plant-based diet. 06:39 You know, and stay... I love sugar. 06:41 That's one of my problems. 06:42 But I try to stay away from sugar as much as I can. 06:46 And then I'm intentionally eating things like turmeric, 06:51 you know, to get the curcumin. 06:55 I try to eat, you know, the cruciferous vegetables 06:59 to get the sulforaphane out of them. 07:02 You know, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and all of those. 07:07 And I try to eat lots of berries to get the anthocyanins 07:12 in my diet as well. 07:13 All of those dark pigments that come in the berries. 07:16 And it really played a huge role in basically 07:19 getting rid of that inflammation. 07:20 Was it difficult for you to make that transition 07:23 to a more anti-inflammatory way of living? 07:26 It was. I'm not going to lie. 07:28 It was. 07:30 But, you know, I was teaching this to my patients. 07:34 And I promised some of my patients that I was teaching 07:37 a class on this to, "Okay, I'll give it a try 07:40 for a month myself." 07:42 And so I did. 07:43 And I have to say that by the end of that month 07:46 I felt the best I had felt in years. 07:49 So you started living what you were preaching. 07:51 - Yes. - I love that. 07:54 On the other hand, are you eating enough antioxidants? 07:58 Are you eating enough fiber? 08:01 It has been shown that plant-based diets 08:04 are anti-inflammatory. 08:06 They reduce inflammation in general. 08:09 It's about the quality of the plant foods. 08:13 It's also about how much fat we eat. 08:16 For inflammation, it's better to keep the fat content low. 08:21 And it's also about the proportions 08:23 and the quality of fat. 08:25 Having omega-3's more than omega-6's in our diet 08:31 will help with inflammation. 08:33 Now, if we reduce the amount of fat that we're using, 08:37 if we're limiting the amount of oils that we're using, 08:41 we will automatically increase the omega-3's in our diet. 08:45 because they're richly present in, for example, 08:50 leafy green vegetables. 08:53 Although these are not rich sources of fat in general, 08:57 the fat that's there is predominately omega-3's. 09:03 Dietary fats can get complicated because there's just so many 09:07 different categories of fats. 09:09 How much we consume of the different kinds of fats 09:11 are a big deal when it comes to inflammation 09:13 because our body produces either pro-inflammatory 09:17 or anti-inflammatory compounds 09:19 from the different kinds of fat we eat. 09:21 Here in American we over eat a class of fats called omega-6's. 09:26 Now we don't want to classify this whole category of fats 09:29 as bad because they're not. 09:31 We just over consume them in super concentrated doses 09:35 from not so good for you sources. 09:37 All the inexpensive seed oils you see in grocery stores, 09:40 all of our processed foods, fried foods are abundant 09:43 in this kind of fat. 09:45 And as a result, we've got inflammation. 09:47 On the other hand, the body produces anti-inflammatory 09:51 compounds from, like, omega-3 fats. 09:54 You can change the fat profile of your diet by 09:56 chucking these and increasing your intake of omega-3 from... 10:08 I'm liking this practical advice. 10:11 What are the elements that are actually protective, right? 10:14 So that comes back to the whole foods plant-based 10:20 diet that is loaded with, you know, greens for instance. 10:26 I tell my patients about what I have dubbed 10:29 the three cubed diet. 10:31 And this is three cubed because it's three full cup servings of 10:38 green leafy vegetables every day minimum. 10:40 Lots of greens. 10:42 Three servings of colorful vegetables 10:47 and some fruits like blueberries, blackberries. 10:51 Anything that's colorful. 10:53 So three full servings of those. 10:55 And then three full servings of the sulfur-rich 11:00 vegetables like cabbage, onions, garlic, mushrooms, 11:06 and things like that. 11:08 So I call it the three cube diet. 11:10 3 times 3 times 3, right. 11:13 And so that's what I call the foundation 11:17 to an optimal plant-based diet, whole plant-based diet 11:22 that will then give you a lot of nutrition. 11:25 We know from studies in neurology that elderly people 11:29 who consume a lot of green leafy vegetables 11:32 actually have the cognitive function of somebody 11:35 five years younger than them. 11:37 That's just that one item. 11:38 And then if they take care of sleep and all the other factors, 11:42 they're going to be doing so much better. 11:44 One of my favorite people is Dr. Denis Burkitt 11:47 who passed away as an elderly man in 1993. 11:52 But he was an amazing surgeon. 11:56 A medical missionary to Africa. 11:58 And he was one of the first physicians to discover 12:03 how to address certain pediatric cancers. 12:06 And Burkitt's Lymphoma was named after Dr. Denis Burkitt. 12:12 And I remember when I was just early in my faculty 12:19 assignment at Loma Linda University School 12:21 of Public Health in the early 90's, Dr. Denis Burkitt 12:25 came to Loma Linda and gave a talk. 12:28 And it was such an amazing talk. 12:30 Just such an amazing Christian, scientist, medical professional. 12:36 And he very wittingly talked about the impact of 12:43 fiber on health. 12:44 He said that everywhere he went, he said that when he 12:48 noticed that the patients who he had had large bowel movements, 12:55 the hospitals of those areas were very small because 12:58 you didn't need many hospitals. 13:00 He said, but when he went to other places of Africa 13:03 where his patient's bowel movements were very small, 13:07 in other words, they had a very low fiber diet, 13:09 they lived more in the cities, then they needed large hospitals 13:13 because there were so many people that needed medical care 13:16 for all types of chronic disease requiring 13:19 his surgical expertise. 13:21 And so he became one of the biggest advocates 13:25 of optimal, what we call a plant strong diet of 13:29 promoting lots of whole plant-based foods. 13:33 And so he was the fiber doctor. 13:37 He was the fiber doctor because now we understand that 13:40 fiber actually gets converted by bacteria in the colon 13:47 into short-chained fatty acids. 13:50 So the body is amazing. 13:51 It can enzymatically through something that's not even 13:55 really part of your body, it's part of the healthy bacteria 13:58 that reside in our body, in our digestive tract, 14:02 that can actually convert a fiber, a non-nutritive 14:06 substance into a nutrient. 14:08 They can convert fiber into a fatty acid 14:13 called butyrate that actually turns off the cancer genes 14:18 in the colon, dramatically limiting the risk of getting 14:22 cancer, and it actually acts as an anti-inflammatory 14:27 for the whole body. 14:28 So it wasn't too long ago that I was even being taught 14:33 that, you know, fiber is not that important. 14:34 There's really no nutritional value. 14:36 Therefore, white bread is no different 14:38 than whole wheat bread. 14:40 Of course, I totally rejected that concept 14:43 because of people, the real giants like Dr. Denis Burkitt, 14:47 who was explaining that fiber is essential. 14:51 Now we know that it actually turns into a nutrient 14:55 that's so, so powerful. 14:56 There's just some foods, bottom line, they're going to 15:00 trigger more inflammation. 15:01 And one of the reasons that a plant-based diet 15:06 and a whole food diet is actually much healthier for us, 15:10 it's not just the antioxidants and the good things 15:13 we're getting, but it's also the lack of inflammatory 15:16 mediators that are being triggered. 15:18 For example, animal products, things like meat and dairy, 15:25 and that sort of thing, they have more omega-6 fatty acids 15:29 which are more pro-inflammatory, while plant-based foods have 15:34 more of the omega-3 fatty acids which is more anti-inflammatory. 15:37 And so, eating a lot of animal products, or even some, 15:43 you know, that can definitely increase 15:45 your level of inflammation. 15:48 On top of that, it's not just the animal products 15:51 and the omega-6's, but it's also the bacteria 15:56 that are associated with those animal products. 16:00 So obviously if we're going to eat meat, 16:02 then most people cook it pretty well and 16:04 it's going to kill the bacteria. 16:05 But even though the bacteria are dead, 16:08 the bodies, the cell bodies of the bacteria 16:12 are still in that food. 16:13 And so if you ingest that into your body, 16:16 now food travels down, goes into your intestines. 16:20 And there's a lot of immune cells in your intestines. 16:25 And they look at these bacteria and they recognize 16:28 bacterial DNA, RNA that's there and they start attacking. 16:34 And they say, "Oh, here's an invader." 16:35 Even though that bacteria might be dead, they don't 16:37 always realize that bacteria is dead. 16:39 So that can also increase the inflammation as well, 16:42 because you're getting all this bacteria 16:44 even though it might be dead into your gut. 16:48 You know, we use in my field in interventional pain management, 16:53 you know, we use injections, we use prescribed medications 16:58 to try to block that inflammation cycle. 17:02 And those things are good and they have their place, 17:04 but it's really best if you can do it from the inside out 17:08 using means that have no side effects 17:10 and that will give you lasting results 17:13 and keep the inflammation away. 17:15 From the inside out. 17:18 How do we accomplish this? 17:20 By putting all the pieces together. 17:22 Good sleep, good food, exercise, and reduction in the 17:27 pro-inflammatory triggers in our lives. 17:30 Without proper nutrition, proper water, and proper rest, 17:35 exercise will not help get rid of inflammation 17:39 in and of itself; they all have to work together. 17:43 When we want to think about managing inflammation, 17:47 we need to actually access a person's life, 17:50 and we need to understand their story 17:53 and what could be contributing to that low grade inflammation, 17:57 what are those insults? 17:58 And so, it can go so far as to go back to what, 18:02 something we call ACEs, adverse childhood events. 18:05 We have to actually go back sometimes and say, 18:07 when did all this start? 18:09 What is your story? 18:10 When did you start not feeling well? 18:13 And then start unpacking it. 18:15 And really empowering the patient to become their own 18:18 investigator, and to kind of start to understand, 18:21 "Oh yeah, that's right, when I was twelve, I had this traumatic 18:26 event or this traumatic something. 18:28 And it was after that I never felt well again." 18:31 Right? 18:32 And okay, well, what was that? 18:34 And how can we start thinking about what started to unravel 18:37 at that point, and how can we put those pieces back 18:39 together and support the growth and the healing 18:43 that needs to happen? 18:44 So some of the biggest insults that I think can happen 18:49 from a childhood perspective are some of these really 18:52 traumatic emotional events that can just change everything about 18:57 how a person sees themselves 18:58 and how they take care of themselves. 19:00 So you can talk to someone like that about nutrition, 19:03 and about being active, and about stress management 19:06 all you want, but if you don't touch on that, 19:09 those inciting events or that trauma that happened 19:12 when they were... 19:14 Not even a child. It doesn't have to be a child. 19:15 It could even be an adult when something traumatic 19:16 can happen to them, when someone is an adult. 19:18 Unless we can really get to those components, 19:21 that can be sort of the source of 19:23 inflammation for them and their story. 19:25 So again, it's about their story and understanding. 19:28 Some people don't have a story. 19:29 Some people don't have traumatic events. 19:31 But they may have an illness that they never recovered from. 19:35 There are viruses, there are bacteria 19:39 that are associated with chronic inflammation 19:41 that the body was never able to clear or to somehow 19:44 was a trigger for this inflammation that never was 19:47 able to calm down. 19:49 And so, how do we then give extra support to the body 19:54 so that it starts to rebalance itself and understand, 19:56 "Oh, I had an appropriate reaction, but I never learned 20:00 when to stop and when to let everything come back down." 20:03 So how do we teach the body to come back down? 20:06 And so, those are the things I think about 20:08 when I think about inflammation. 20:09 So there are, according to the American College of Lifestyle 20:13 Medicine, there are six pillars of lifestyle medicine. 20:14 And I think of lifestyle as the key components there. 20:17 So nutrition and physical activity, and stress management, 20:20 connectiveness and relationships. 20:22 So if someone feels super disconnected 20:24 from their environment around them, 20:26 they don't have the love, the hope, the support, 20:30 they're going to be living in a place of constant stress 20:33 and trauma of not being connected. 20:36 And so those are all things that I think about 20:38 when I think about inflammation. 20:40 I think nutrition is probably one of the most powerful ones. 20:44 But you can get nutrition right and not get those other things, 20:47 and you're going to still struggle. 20:49 So really understanding the patient's story 20:50 is where I would start. 20:52 Yeah, so to try to minimize your levels of inflammation, 20:56 you really want to be careful to lead basically 20:59 an anti-inflammatory life. 21:00 And so sometimes we focus, boom, right on the food, 21:03 but I think stress levels 21:05 are probably the biggest factor here. 21:08 Because unregulated chronic stress, what that does is it 21:12 actually makes it so that the hormone cortisol 21:17 starts to be chronically elevated. 21:20 And cortisol actually helps to regulate the immune system. 21:23 And so it's not a bad thing in an acute short-term state. 21:28 But if the cortisol remains elevated on and on and on, 21:32 what happens then is that your immune system 21:35 actually starts getting dysregulated. 21:37 And that sets the stage for more inflammation. 21:40 And we see that even at times, for example, 21:42 autoimmune diseases, and cancer, but it also affects the brain. 21:46 And we don't always make that connection as much. 21:49 So learning to regulate stress I think is a very important 21:53 aspect of dealing with inflammation. 21:57 Yeah, that's one of the most difficult things, because 22:00 especially in our society today it just seems like 22:02 we're always on the run. 22:04 There's always something to do. 22:05 Our to do list a hundred miles long. 22:07 So we have to intentionally take time to stop. 22:12 We have to force ourselves to stop. 22:14 And ideally, you know, we carve some time out on a daily basis, 22:19 protected time, where we can just have quiet time. 22:23 Where we can give our stress to God. 22:27 Where we can really say, "You know what? 22:29 I can't carry all of this." 22:31 And it really reminds me of what Jesus says, His invitation 22:34 where He says... 22:49 And yet so many of us feel like, "Man, my burden is so heavy." 22:52 When we're feeling that way, I think it's all the more 22:55 important that we're being intentional taking that time 22:58 with Jesus, and we're saying, "You know what? 23:00 Lord, I know I have a role to play here, but 23:04 I want You to carry the burden and I want You to help me 23:07 see what's mine and what do I just need to leave with You, 23:11 and trust You with that." 23:12 So that should be ideally daily, and ideally even throughout 23:16 the day that we're reconnecting with God. 23:18 Because I know I might give my life to God in the morning, 23:21 but then throughout the day 23:22 I can kind of go in and out of that. 23:24 Sometimes I'm abiding and I'm resting in His love, 23:26 and other times I'm back on the wheel and driving again. 23:31 And then, you know, the other piece that I think is 23:33 profoundly important, see, I believe God does not want us 23:37 to experience chronic stress. 23:39 Because it has so many negative implications 23:41 for mental and physical health. 23:44 And He doesn't want us to suffer that way. 23:45 He's given us a command, and He told us because He knew 23:50 we would be most apt to forget, so He said, "Remember." 23:57 In other words, He wants us to take that weekly pause 24:01 to stop, to destress, to rest, to reconnect. 24:06 And that actually resets that stress timeclock. 24:10 When we take that 24 hours and we say, "You know, on this day, 24:14 yes my stressors don't all go away, but I'm choosing 24:18 to intentionally put them on the shelf today." 24:21 That allows us to find that rest. 24:23 And we're saying, "You know what? 24:25 I want to do things on this day instead of getting and 24:28 staying on the hamster wheel, I'm intentionally giving this 24:32 to God, and even if it pops into my mind..." 24:34 And I literally sometimes picture like putting it 24:36 on the shelf until tomorrow. 24:38 That can help us to reset that stress timeclock 24:42 and to not experience that chronic stress. 24:44 When it comes to inflammation too, one of the things to think 24:47 about, I want to just tell a short little story. 24:49 So I had two people that came to me, 24:51 I have a lot of people come to me for weight loss. 24:53 They want to have weight loss. 24:55 "What diet should I go on, Doc?" 24:57 Right? 24:59 And as I started to assess them a little bit more deeply 25:02 the first time I met them, neither one of them had any 25:05 purpose or reason for living. 25:09 They were just getting up and going through their motions 25:11 all day every day. Right? 25:13 They had, like, "Well, what makes you 25:14 want to get up in the morning?" 25:16 "I don't know." 25:17 "Well, what's your purpose in life 25:20 and what's your meaning in life?" 25:22 "Well, I don't know." Right? 25:23 And so they had been on at least ten different diets, 25:28 were dramatically wanting to lose weight, 25:31 but they had no reason for it. 25:35 So we spent the first probably two or three visits 25:38 just talking about and exploring, 25:39 "Well, what is your purpose? What is your meaning? 25:42 Who do you want to be connected with? 25:43 What do relationships look like?" 25:46 Because health behavior change and taking care of ourselves 25:50 happens in relationship, and relationships are healing. 25:53 If you don't have those relationships, 25:55 then you're going to struggle. Right? 25:58 So we spent the time working on that first. 26:01 And then they had a ton of knowledge about nutrition. 26:04 They knew what they wanted to do, they just couldn't do it. 26:07 They weren't connected to their purpose and their meaning. 26:09 So this is the example of how connecting to purpose 26:12 and meaning, I think, helps bring down that inflammation, 26:16 helps create this space for behavior change that can happen, 26:19 that can release the inflammation and allow someone 26:22 to actually live their best life. 26:24 And of course, you know, the ultimate connection 26:26 to God is the ultimate healer. 26:28 But some people don't see it that way. 26:32 Some people have been damaged and hurt by religion, 26:34 have been damaged and hurt by the version of Christianity 26:37 that they've seen in the world, and they don't really, 26:40 they really haven't experience God. 26:42 And so, I see this ability to work with patients 26:46 to give them that hope that there are things that can be 26:49 done, and that they can see God through natural healing 26:53 and creating an experience for their body to heal. 26:56 And that is God allowing Himself to work through them 27:00 and through their body in a way that they've 27:02 never experienced before. 27:03 So for me, that's all related to inflammation 27:06 because inflammation is any time when the body is 27:08 out of balance, and it doesn't know how to manage those 27:12 hits, and some of those hits can be disemotional, 27:15 disconnectivity component. 27:19 Dr. Rea is talking about spiritual heart health. 27:22 Like she said, our spiritual heart can be injured 27:25 by so many things. 27:27 Even by religion. 27:28 And this disconnect of our spiritual heart 27:30 is affecting our physical health more than we realize. 27:34 The greatest Healer this world has ever known 27:36 wants to restore it and fulfill in you the purpose 27:39 and meaning of who you were designed to be. 27:42 Don't forget, you were made for health. |
Revised 2025-07-28