Naturopathic doctor Aimee Shunney
Chronic inflammation is strongly correlated with a myriad of health problems, from allergies and depression to the three main killers of Western society: cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. It may sound overwhelming, but according to licensed naturopathic doctor Aimee Shunney, there’s a lot we can do about the chronic inflammation problem.
Not to be confused with acute inflammation—which Shunney explains is the cornerstone of our immune system, our body’s natural chemical reaction to stress, pathogens, broken legs and other physical casualties—chronic inflammation is the prolonged elevation of those chemicals.
“All these inflammatory chemicals are rushing to the area to help minimize damage and help us get better faster,” explains Shunney, sipping a cup of tea in her office at Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine on East Cliff. “What we’ve learned is that certain things cause those inflammatory chemicals to stay elevated long term.”
Obesity, chronic lack of sleep, and stress are three big triggers. Smoking, eating too much refined sugar and flour, and caffeine are others. And interestingly, negative feelings of hostility, anger, and shame are also being shown to cause prolonged elevation of inflammatory chemicals. The problem is that the symptoms are often hidden.
“So it’s almost like an epidemic in that sense,” Shunney says. “I would argue that anybody living a high-stress life, anybody who has got any extra weight on them, right there, there’s chronic inflammation. I would imagine that it’s very difficult for most of us to escape it, it’s just a matter of degree,” says Shunney.
And this may be the hardest reality: visceral fat—that stubborn kind Americans commonly have cushioning their abdomens—is actually considered to be its own endocrine organ, and secretes its own inflammatory chemicals and hormones, says Shunney. It’s the vicious cycle that works against you when you’re trying to lose weight.
So what can we do about it? The answer is two-part, and you might already have heard it before: One, Exercise—this not only secretes endorphins and other anti-inflammatory chemicals into the body, it also attacks that evil visceral fat.
And two, “Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said ‘Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food,’” says Shunney. “It’s overused, and it’s very elegant in its simplicity, and it’s true.
Eating a broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables, and reducing animal meat—especially red meat, which has more pro-inflammatory chemicals in it—is the easiest way to describe the anti-inflammatory diet. But it’s a lot more colorful than that.
“Fruits and vegetables contain all of the vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients, antioxidants, all of the things that have anti inflammatory effects in the body,” says Shunney. “And sadly, you just don’t get that stuff from a steak.”
Other anti-inflammatory foods include: ginger, rosemary, garlic, onions, and spices like tumeric and mustard seed. Of all animal proteins, fish contains the highest amount of the anti-inflammatory omega 3 proteins, and it’s also the best source for long chain essential omega 3’s, the easiest kind for our bodies to utilize. Shunney also recommends cutting out refined flours and replacing them with whole grains that do not contain gluten, like rice, quinoa, millet and amaranth.
When you’re eating the same seven things everyday, you’re not really doing your body justice. If it sounds like basic nutrition, well, it is.
“I think one of the biggest travesties of modern medicine is that nutrition has somehow become alternative medicine,” says Shunney,
Dr. Aimée Shunney, ND, specializes in nutrition, Women’s health, hormone balancing and family medicine. She sees patients at Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine and also conducts the three-week Cleanse Organic with chef Jennifer Brewer.
