What causes inflammation in a woman over 60
Dr. Martin has been talking about inflammation since long before it was fashionable, and he refuses to treat it as a mystery.
Dr. Martin opening his list:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1559So if you have listened to me over the years, let me tell you the causes of inflammation, the causes, because inflammation's not Houdini.
Not Houdini. It did not appear out of thin air and it does not vanish on its own. He names insulin resistance, sugar and crappy carbs, seed oils, leaky gut and antibiotics, free radical damage, and low vitamin D. Six things a woman over 60 can actually look at.
Silent inflammation, and why there is no fever
The word inflammation makes people think of a swollen ankle. That version is the one you want. Something got hurt, the body sent in the fire crew, the job gets done.
His definition of the other kind is precise. An inflammatory response in the absence of a virus or bacteria. Nothing to fight, and the fire crew is still out. Then, he says, you have got something going on.
It is silent because it does not hurt and does not show up as a fever. What it does instead is grind away. Left unchecked it destroys tissue, destroys blood vessels and attacks what he calls the Teflon layer inside them. He names it as one of the biggest causes of plaque in the arteries.
And it has one effect he noticed above all the others, from his chronic fatigue work.
Dr. Martin on what it does:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1559Inflammation was a characteristic of that chronic fatigue syndrome, and the biggest thing in inflammation, one of the things that silent inflammation will do is drain your energy.
If you are 62 and flat for no reason you can name, that is the sentence to sit with.
Insulin resistance, sugar and crappy carbs
He starts every list here, and this one is no different. Insulin resistance, too much sugar, too many crappy carbs.
High fructose corn syrup and manmade sugar get the sharpest words. Our bodies were never meant to eat that, he says, and no wonder we are walking around as a body on fire.
For a woman over 60 the practical version is dull and effective. The sugar and the fast carbs are the ones on his list you can change at the next meal, without permission from anyone.
Seed oils and the omega 6 load
Dr. Martin on seed oils:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1559Then we eat all those crappy carbs that are made with seed oils and that elevates the level of omega 6 in our bodies.
Two things at once, which is his point. The carb raises insulin and the oil it was made with raises omega 6. The packet does one job going in and another job once it is in.
Go back 50 or 80 years, he says, and we did not have inflammation the way we have it now. What changed was margarine and the hydrogenated oils, which he describes as meant for your car and not for your body. He adds that they elevate your insulin too, so the two causes are not even separate.
Leaky gut and the overuse of antibiotics
Dr. Martin recapping his causes:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1559So inflammation, insulin resistance, too much sugar, too many crappy carbs, leaky gut, the overuse of antibiotics, all the crap that comes in and changes our microbiome.
His picture of the gut wall is a border. Friendly bacteria are the border guards, standing at the gut blood barrier. Not enough friendly bacteria means not enough guards.
When the guards are gone, things cross that were never supposed to. Heavy metals, yeast, garbage into the bloodstream, and he points out the same thing happens at the blood brain barrier, which he says always fascinated him precisely because the body built a barrier there in the first place.
That is the whole reason he will not separate gut health from anything else. More on that in all disease starts in the gut.
Free radical damage
Free radical damage is oxidation, and he calls it the way the body ages. Normal, in other words, and not something to panic about on its own.
What matters is the loop, and he credits Jack Challem's book on inflammation for the phrase. A double edged sword. Oxidation causes inflammation. Inflammation causes oxidation. Each one feeds the other, which is why it does not settle down by itself once it gets going.
Low vitamin D
The last two are the ones he adds from his own practice rather than from anybody's book, and he says so.
Dr. Martin on vitamin D:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1559One of the biggest factors in inflammation is low levels of vitamin D, low levels of vitamin D, low levels of sunlight.
He says it twice in a row, which is how you know where he ranks it. People are very low in vitamin D, and he puts 90 per cent of the population below what he would call optimised.
Then he adds one more from the same place: low B12.
How to measure it
The useful part of all this is that silent inflammation is not invisible to a blood test, even though it is invisible to you.
The one he points people to is CRP, C-reactive protein, and he tells people to ask for it when they get blood work done. A vitamin D level belongs on the same requisition, given where he puts it on this list.
Neither number is a diagnosis and neither replaces the practitioner reading them. But they are two requests a woman over 60 can make at her next appointment, and between them they cover the top and the bottom of his list.
Common questions
What causes inflammation in women over 60?
Dr. Martin names them rather than calling it a mystery: insulin resistance, too much sugar and too many crappy carbs, seed oils and the omega 6 load, leaky gut and the overuse of antibiotics, free radical damage, and low vitamin D.
What is silent inflammation?
An inflammatory response in the absence of a virus or bacteria. No fever, no swelling you can point at. He says left unchecked it destroys tissue and blood vessels, and calls it one of the biggest causes of plaque in the arteries.
Do seed oils cause inflammation?
In his view yes, and he points at the crappy carbs made with them, which push the omega 6 level up. He says we did not have inflammation like this 50 or 80 years ago.
Does low vitamin D cause inflammation?
He calls it one of the biggest factors and repeats the line, tying it to low sunlight. He also says 90 per cent of the population do not have optimised levels.
How do you test for inflammation?
He points at CRP, the C-reactive protein blood test, and at getting a vitamin D level done at the same time. Ask your own practitioner to run them.
Read next: What Is The Safest Anti-Inflammatory After 60? and Arthritis In Women Over 60: What Is Actually Happening In The Joint.
Inflammation, from the clinic shop
Inflammation Formula is the formula the clinic shop sells for inflammation. It sits behind the food changes on this page, not in front of them.
60-day money-back guarantee. Inflammation has many causes. See your practitioner about anything new or persistent, and about any test you want run.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
