Inside Health Weekly

POV: It’s the week before thanksgiving.

You’ve had 3 midterms, 4 iced coffees, no routine, and a travel day coming up.

Welcome to Inflammation Week. The pre-thanksgiving reality where your body starts reacting before the turkey hits the oven.

Between stress, travel, changing schedules, and holiday eating, inflammation becomes the main character of your body. Today we’re breaking down what it actually is, why it happens, how to calm it down, and which parts of your body act like your relatives at the dinner table.

(Because yes… your immune system has a personality. And during thanksgiving week? She’s loud.)

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Recommendations:

Anti-Inflammatory Media

1. Podcasts:

   → Huberman Lab: “Inflammation and Immune System”

   → Science Vs. The Real Anti-Inflammatory Diet

   → Just One Thing with Professor Janet Lord

   → The Doctor’s Pharmacy with Mark Hynman

2. TikTok Creators Who (like Inside Health) work to make Healthy Simple:

   @glucosegoddess

   @drnadolsky

   @thewellnourished

   (In spanish!) @dr.mauriciogonzalez

3. Books - Great Holiday Gifts :)

   → The Inflammation Spectrum

   → Eat to Beat Disease

   → A Silent Fire: The Story of Inflammation

Inflammation: Your Body’s Warning Buzzer.

You see the magic words “anti-inflammatory” written across almost every health-promoted product, but let’s take a step back– what even is inflammation?

Inflammation is the immune response to something out of the ordinary happening inside our bodies. It is our body’s bodyguard, combating anything that could do more potential harm. When we get a bloody wound, that yellow pus that pops up in the healing process is an inflammatory response. 

All seems well with this, right? 

It turns out, too much of an inflammatory response is thought to produce a backfiring response. Low-grade inflammation, starting at the cellular level and going unnoticed for years, is the leading cause of chronic disease and aging. Below are examples of diseases that may start from the body’s inflammatory response and are prolonged too long:

• Autoimmune disorders

• Diabetes

• Cardiovascular diseases

• Inflammatory bowel disease

• Clinical depression

So what’s the point of knowing this? How does this affect you?

→ Your everyday habits might be what is triggering inflammation in you right now, and you don’t even know. 

1. Diet – fried foods, processed meats, pasta, energy drinks

2. Sugary drinks & alcohol

3. Remaining stationary – lack of exercise

4. Skipping on sleep

5. Chronic stress

Chronic disease begins decades before symptomatically showing up. Before those symptoms show up, show up for yourself by knowing what is good for your body and what is not. One of the main drivers of inflammation is a poor diet. Don’t let the holidays be an excuse to jumpstart inflammation.

Inflammation = Family Members at the Table

1. Perfectionist Mom (Chronic Stress System)

   She wants everything to be perfect and might spiral if it’s not. Chronic stress does the same… keeps cortisol high, keeps inflammation “on” and won’t let anything go.

2. Argumentative Uncle (Pro-Inflammatory Signals)

   One joke and suddenly the whole table is yelling. Exactly who cytokines work— they signal your whole body to activate, escalate, and get LOUD.

3. Overreactive Aunt (Innate Immunity)

   Jumps at every noise, wipes the counter 10+ times… just like your immune system: fast, dramatic and reacts to anything that looks suspicious.  

4. The Teen With Headphones On (Brain Inflammation)

   Doesn’t speak, doesn’t blink, just stares into the void until dinner starts. Brain inflammation feels like that… foggy, slow, overstimulated and mentally checked out.

5. Sugar-High Kids Table (Blood Sugar Spike)

   They sprint, scream, crash, cry, repeat. That’s your glucose when it spikes… fast inflammation, followed by the biggest crash of all time.

🔴 Signs You Might Be In Your “Inflammation Era”

• Afternoon crash hits HARD

• Puffy face in the mornings

• Bloating after certain random foods

• Sore joints / muscles without working out

• Brain Fog

• Nonstop cravings

🟢Steady Energy, Low Inflammation (Not aesthetic, just biology)

• Walk 10min per day (at least) → inflammation markers drop significantly

• Eat Protein + Color → gut and immune system calm down

• Drink water before caffeine → less stress on your system

• Breathing and active meditation → will literally lower inflammatory cytokines

• Omega 3s → inflammation’s worst enemy

• Limit alcohol consumption → less stress on your liver! 

“Oh Wow!!” Inflammation Edition

• Your Gut = 70% of your immune system

• Loneliness can increase inflammation (read actual research here)

• 1 bad night of sleep = increase inflammatory markers

• Walking reduces inflammation more than supplements (read it here) 

• Stress in one of the strongest inflammation triggers (so chiiiiiill)

• Ultra processed foods can inflame your gut in just a couple of hours

Your body is always listening to your life’s choices, so please choose wisely.

💬From Cordelia

Thank you for tuning in! Inflammation is one of the most misunderstood parts of health, everyone talks about “bloat,” “puffiness,” “energy crashes,” but almost no one explains why.

Inside Health exists to bridge that gap, mix science with storytelling, and make your biology something you understand… not fear.

Your body isn’t dramatic. It’s just trying to help you survive the world we’re in.

–Cordelia de la Fuente; Founder, Inside Health

That’s everything for now! Thanks for hanging out with Inside Health this week. Understanding how you function starts with education, and you’re already doing the work just by being here.

Until Next Time! —The Inside Health Team.