Inflammation Management Starter Pack

This has been coming up a lot lately and the initial treatment is something everyone should be able to do without going to a healthcare professional.  When you’re dealing with inflammation you really only have one goal; let the body heal itself.   This seemingly obvious statement is amazingly ignored by most patients as soon as an area of their body starts to hurt.  

Your body has a natural healing response that triggers after injury which often will cause a normal amount of swelling, heat, redness, and reduction in function.  Just imagine an exceptionally hard lifting workout.  That delayed onset muscle soreness is exactly that.  Damaged muscle tissue, loss of capacity to perform, heat, and some mild swelling.   While a lot of these principles would apply to a lesser degree the inflammation response I'm referring to in this post is one following injury that results in an inability to complete the task and severely damaged or strained tissue.   In this case you’ll want to hit these important steps to allow your body natural time to heal. 

1. Remove the hammer - Give the body a chance to actually heal itself without you constantly re-aggravating the tissue.  In athletics this may mean sitting out from sport for a bit.  For most adults it can be modifying your work posture, hobby, or lifting regime to avoid anything that continues to exacerbate the inflammation response.  

2. Ice - Hilariously, this has come under fire on instagram a lot with people suggesting ice is bad for you.  I can’t stress enough how incomplete and inaccurate this statement is.  Ice itself has not been shown to have nearly any effect on muscle temperature in the muscle.  The main positive effect is a reduction in blood flow (helpful for an area with massive blood flow stimulus following an injury), immobilization of the painful area (because you have to while icing) and some systemic hormone release triggered to counteract the cold your body is being exposed to.  All very positive.   If you stick to icing 10-15 minutes at a time several times a day you have nothing to worry about.   

3. Unloaded Movements - The implementation of this should be regulated by your therapist or athletic trainer who is seeing you for your acute injury. But for chronic injuries this is a must.  This will bring non-inflammation causing blood flow to the area (because you aren’t loading it and because you’re moving it through a range that doesn’t hurt).  Super helpful.  Seemingly contradictory to ice but it’s quite helpful if done before icing or any other part of the day.   No warm up required.  

4. Sleep - A good argument could be made that this list should start and stop with sleep.  There is nothing that currently exists which is more effective and naturally healthier than sleep for removing inflammation.   There is massive literature out there on the benefits of sleep so I'd encourage you to dive into that if you aren’t willing to take my statement as fact.  

Once you’ve done these you can start to introduce progressive load and functional activity.  That will be the biggest variance between chronic conditions and acute conditions (and acute conditions with actual severe damage vs strains).  Inflammation is normal and often healthy so don’t be afraid of the word or the concept.  But understanding what it does and in which cases to manage it are key for any successful recovery! 

The picture isn’t intended to be misleading. Coffee has some nice inflammatory properties. Nutrition will play a massive role in long term inflammation which exceeds the scope of this post.

Are you a Protein Pro?

How much protein should you be taking?  

What better example of dispute amongst experts than the argument of how much protein to take.  There seems to be uniform agreement that you need protein.  So why can't we agree on how much?  

 If you’re someone who licks the frosting from an oreo then throws it away here’s what you need to know; “the frosting” if you will.  Unless you’re a hyper specialized athlete or body type, 1.2-1.6g/kg body weight is your target.  Ergo, if you weigh 100kg (220 pounds) you should be aiming for 120 grams a day (lighter exercise) up to 160 grams a day (heavier exercise). 

There doesn’t appear to be anything inherently wrong with taking as much as 1g/pound body weight but once you get above 1.6g/kg the bulk of existing science indicates there is no meaningful gain.  There is an issue with not getting enough however so if you’re not sure where you stand try keeping a daily journal for a few days tracking only protein intake. Your body won’t disintegrate if you get below 1g/kg but you start to see a decline in your body’s performance which increases the lower you get.

Your protein can be taken within 3 hours before or after a workout and ideally spread out over 3 different feeding periods.  I will concede I wasn’t blown away by any specific expert testimonial advising this but in my mind it stands to reason your body will absorb and utilize a greater % of the protein if it’s taken over 3 meals rather than all at once.  

Because nutrition wouldn’t be fun if it were easy; here are some other variables you need to be considering to maximize the usefulness of the protein you’re ingesting

• What kind of protein is it?

• Animal:  Casein, Whey, Egg, Meat etc.

• Plant:  Soy, Pea, Brown Rice etc. 

This understanding is pretty important and will drive the rest of your diet choices.  If you are a plant based diet person you are ingesting many incomplete amino acids in their protein, supplementation will be critical.  If you are animal based you need to more closely monitor the quality of the animal you are consuming (where did it live, what was it fed, do you trust the company to use organic practices etc.)

• In what form is the protein? 

• Bar, Powder, Animal Food, Vegetables etc. 

This will dictate how efficiently your body will use the protein.  10 grams of steak will be used nearly 100% compared to 10 grams of gas station protein bar which maybe your body can pull 2-4 useful grams from. 

Certainly consulting with a professional for your more specific range is a good idea to take into account your age, gender, pre-existing medical conditions, level of activity, lifestyle habits etc. But using these rough measurements is a good place to start!

Conclusion:  

This a huge (and fun) rabbit hole to go down and one I would highly encourage you to take the time to understand.  The good news is you can make plenty of mistakes and still improve.  The bad news is you have to be mindful of how your body is feeling, pay closer attention to your workouts and daily activity, and work with your physician if you have pre-existing health conditions that may impact your ability to workout or digest protein.  After a month of trying one method, try another!  Keep evolving your approach as your body evolves to reach the best version of yourself!