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What Chronic Inflammation Really Does to Your Body

August 11, 2025

You hear the word “inflammation” everywhere—in podcasts, on social, and in every corner of healthcare, from your dentist to your cardiologist.

But it’s not just a trendy topic. I’ve been raising concerns about it for more than two decades. 

Still, you might wonder,  ‘What does inflammation actually mean?’

Most people know it’s not good. But beyond that, it’s kind of fuzzy. And yet, it plays a diabolical role in many common health issues.

To understand what inflammation is, it helps to start with a version you can actually see.

If you cut your hand, it becomes sore. That’s inflammation—your immune system kicking in to start the healing process. And if it gets infected, it turns warm and swollen. You can literally feel the inflammation ramp up.

But that same process can happen deep inside your body, in ways you can’t see. And when it doesn’t shut off, it becomes a problem.

Chronic inflammation has been linked to a wide range of symptoms, including joint pain, bloating, brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, and weight gain. 

The good news? If you turn down inflammation, you can often find real relief—from every single one of those symptoms. I’ll show you how. 

What Is Inflammation, Exactly?

At its core, inflammation is your body’s response to injury or threat. 

When a tissue is injured or under threat, your immune system sends out chemical messengers—like prostaglandins, histamine, bradykinin, and cytokines—to help your body respond and begin healing.

These chemicals do a few key things:

• They increase blood flow, which brings more immune cells to the area and causes redness and warmth.
  
  
• They make blood vessels more permeable, allowing helpful cells and fluids to move into the tissue. That leads to swelling, which cushions the area and helps with repair.
  
  
• They sensitize nearby nerve endings, which makes the area more sensitive to pain. That’s your body’s way of telling you to protect the area while it heals.

This is inflammation doing what it’s supposed to do: defend, repair, and restore.

But that same process can turn harmful when it doesn’t shut off. Poor diet, stress, toxins, and other modern-day triggers can lead to low-grade, ongoing inflammation—even when there’s no injury to fix.

Think of it this way: Parts of your body—your gut, your blood vessels, your brain—might be taking hits every single day. 

In medicine, these are called “insults”—anything that irritates or stresses the body enough to spark an immune response. And if those insults keep coming, your immune system never really gets to stand down.

The result: nagging symptoms you don’t want, and a higher risk for chronic diseases. 

How Can Inflammation Cause Bloating, Brain Fog, or Even Anxiety?

Okay, too much inflammation is bad. But how does that lead to bloating? Or joint pain? Or heartburn, headaches, blotchy skin, and anxiety?

The answer lies in where that inflammation is happening—and what it’s disrupting.

• In your gut: Chronic inflammation in your digestive tract can weaken your gut lining, allowing harmful substances to leak into the bloodstream. This triggers an immune response that can lead to bloating, food sensitivities, and even systemic inflammation that affects other areas of the body.
  
  
• In your brain: Inflammation in your brain—especially in areas like the hypothalamus—can interfere with hunger cues, focus, mood, and energy. It may contribute to brain fog, changes in appetite, fatigue, anxiety, and even depression. (Learn more: The Most Dangerous Foods for Your Brain.)
  
  
• In your blood vessels and nerves: Inflammation in the lining of your blood vessels can impair circulation and trigger reactions that affect everything from blood pressure to insulin sensitivity. It’s also thought to play a role in certain types of headaches by affecting nerve sensitivity and blood flow to your brain.
  
  
• In your joints and connective tissues: Even without a direct injury, inflammation can affect the tissues that support and cushion your joints—causing stiffness, swelling, or pain.
  
  
• On your skin: Because skin is part of your immune system, inflammation often shows up there, too. That might look like puffiness, redness, rashes, or blotchiness.
  
  
• In your digestive tract: Ongoing inflammation can irritate your stomach and esophagus, contributing to heartburn and reflux—especially when combined with other factors like poor diet, stress, or gut imbalances.

Each of these is an issue on its own. But inflammation often affects multiple systems at once—which is why you’ll often hear the term “whole-body inflammation.” And that can add up, leaving you feeling crappy, exhausted, and miserable.

What Triggers Chronic Inflammation

One of the biggest drivers of chronic inflammation? The Standard American Diet.

Your body can handle a lot—but when you consume certain foods in excess, it can push your immune system into overdrive, driving up whole body inflammation. 

And the weight gain that often comes with this overeating only adds to the problem. Fat tissue—particularly around the belly—can produce its own inflammatory signals, creating a cycle that’s hard to break.

So what kinds of foods are we talking about?

• Sugar and starch: When you eat sugar or fast-digesting starches, your blood sugar rises sharply. Consistently eating these foods in excess leads to repeated spikes in blood sugar and insulin. Over time, this can contribute to inflammation—especially in people who already have insulin resistance or are on the path to developing it. Chronically high blood sugar may also damage tissues like the lining of your blood vessels, which your immune system treats as an injury.
  
  
• Alcohol: For some people, even moderate amounts can irritate your gut lining, disrupt your microbiome, and increase intestinal permeability—allowing toxins, bacteria, and partially digested food particles to slip into your bloodstream. Your immune system sees these as threats and responds with inflammation. (Learn more: The Truth about Alcohol.)
  
  
• Trans fats: These industrial fats interfere with normal cell function and are known to activate inflammatory pathways. While banned from many products, they’re still found in some fried foods, baked goods, and processed snacks.
  
  
• Excess omega-6 fats: Omega-6 fats—found in seed oils like soybean, corn, safflower, and sunflower—are essential in small amounts. But most modern diets contain far too many of them and not enough omega-3s (from sources like wild salmon, sardines, flax, or walnuts) to provide balance. That excess tilts the body toward a more inflammatory state. (Learn more: Are Seed Oils Bad for You?)

Here’s the thing: Your ancestors wouldn’t have eaten any of these ingredients in excess. Some of the ingredients wouldn’t have even existed. 

But today, they’re not only readily available, food manufacturers combine these ingredients to engineer ultra-processed foods that are nearly impossible to stop eating. 

The result: People don’t tend to just eat these ultra-processed foods occasionally—they eat them often and in large amounts. So thanks to their addictive qualities, these foods drive both weight gain and chronic inflammation.

Think of them as fuel for inflammation. And that inflammation causes unnecessary pain, discomfort, and suffering. It can feel like it’ll never stop. Until you learn how to break the cycle. 

How to Stop the Cycle of Chronic Inflammation

The fastest way to lower inflammation is to take out the things that trigger it and add in foods that help repair and calm the body.

That means:

• Whole, colorful veggies
  
  
• Healthy fats (like olive oil, avocado, and omega-3s)
  
  
• Clean protein from regenerative sources
  
  
• Removing sugar, refined flour, alcohol, industrial oils, and additives

In fact, when you follow these guidelines, you can change how your body feels in just 10 days. That’s why it’s the first thing I have patients do when they come to me for help. 

I call it the 10-Day Detox, and it’s designed to dramatically reduce inflammation and help reset your body to its default settings. So you feel better, fast.

Does This Really Work?

Yes. After just 10 days on an anti-inflammatory diet—a.k.a the 10-Day Detox—people often report:

• Less bloating
  
  
• Clearer thinking
  
  
• Better energy
  
  
• Less joint pain
  
  
• Improved sleep
  
  
• And yes, weight loss—without starving

Here’s some interesting data: Out of 250 recent 10-Day Detox participants who logged their weight and completed both the before and after Medical Symptom Questionnaire, the average weight loss was 7 pounds. (While individual results vary, more than half the group lost 5 pounds or more.)

For many, the weight loss was a welcome side effect. But the real benefits were in how they felt. Participants reported dramatic improvements in several frustrating symptoms. Here’s a look at the average reduction across the group:

Consider that for a moment: They changed their diet for just 10 days—and got relief from all kinds of symptoms. That’s not random.

It’s what happens when you remove the fuel for inflammation and give your body what it actually needs to heal. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

If you want to try it yourself, check out my 10-Day Detox. But even if you don’t, know this: What you put in your body matters. A lot. 

You might not think you can feel inflammation—until you start to lower it. Then you realize: You never knew how bad you felt until you started to feel better.