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Unravelling the Mystery of Inflammation: The Body's Powerful Response | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Dr. Richie Kirwan explains to Myprotein just "what is inflammation?" What is it? How does it happen? And what you can do to prevent it.
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1. Medzhitov R. Origin and physiological roles of inflammation. Nature. 2008;454(7203):428-35.
2. Ahmed AU. An overview of inflammation: mechanism and consequences. Frontiers in Biology. 2011;6(4):274-81.
3. Minari ALA, Thomatieli-Santos RV. From skeletal muscle damage and regeneration to the hypertrophy induced by exercise: what is the role of different macrophage subsets? American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. 2022;322(1):R41-R54.
4. Lilja M, Mandić M, Apró W, Melin M, Olsson K, Rosenborg S, et al. High doses of anti-inflammatory drugs compromise muscle strength and hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training in young adults. Acta Physiologica. 2018;222(2):e12948.
5. Ahluwalia N, Albers R, Bosco N, Bourdet-Sicard R, Calder PC, Haller D, et al. A Consideration of Biomarkers to be Used for Evaluation of Inflammation in Human Nutritional Studies. Br J Nutr. 2013;109(S1):S1-S34.
6. Djalali M, Eshraghyan MR, Ghavipour M, Moghadam AM, Saedisomeolia A, Sotoudeh G, et al. Tomato juice consumption reduces systemic inflammation in overweight and obese females. Br J Nutr. 2013;109(11):2031-5.
7. Widjaja G, doewes Ri, Rudiansyah M, Sultan MQ, Ansari MJ, Izzat SE, et al. Effect of tomato consumption on inflammatory markers in health and disease status: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN. 2022;50:93-100.
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0:01
inflammation what is it and is it
0:03
something you should worry about let's
0:04
talk about
0:05
[Music]
0:09
that how's it going guys I'm Richie kwin
0:11
and today we're going to talk about
0:13
probably one of the biggest buzzwords in
0:15
the health and fitness World
0:17
inflammation we'll talk about what it is
0:19
what it does in your body how it happens
0:21
and what you can do to make sure it's
0:23
not a problem for you this may come as a
0:25
surprise but we need inflammation to
0:27
survive inflammation is a vital process
0:30
in the body that we need to keep
0:31
everything working exactly as it should
0:34
you see inflammation is part of our
0:35
body's immune system and because of that
0:37
our immune cells like macrophages
0:39
neutrophils and lymphocytes play a major
0:41
role in starting it and controlling it
0:43
we use inflammation to help us fight
0:45
infection from bacteria and viruses and
0:47
we also use it to help repair tissues
0:49
that are stressed injured or damaged a
0:51
classic example of this is what happens
0:53
when you exercise every time you
0:55
exercise this induces a small
0:58
inflammatory response in your muscles
0:59
and and this inflammation is absolutely
1:01
essential for exercise adaptation and
1:04
muscle growth we even have studies
1:06
showing that if young healthy people
1:07
take high doses of anti-inflammatory
1:09
medicines like ibuprofen it reduces
1:11
muscle growth over a period of 8 weeks
1:14
so if inflammation is so important why
1:16
do we hear so many bad things about it
1:18
online well the thing is we can divide
1:20
the inflammatory response into two main
1:22
types the first type is what we call the
1:24
acute inflammatory response and it means
1:26
a response that happens right now over a
1:29
short period time a good example of this
1:31
is if you get a splinter in your finger
1:33
that splinter will cause tissue damage
1:35
and probably introduce some bacteria
1:37
into the area around it your body will
1:38
send immune cells which will start the
1:40
inflammatory response the area around
1:42
the wound will probably get red and warm
1:44
because part of the inflammatory
1:46
response is increased blood flow to a
1:47
particular area of the body to bring
1:49
more immune cells this acute response is
1:51
usually really short-lived and can be
1:53
over in a matter of hours or days and
1:55
it's usually localized to the area
1:57
around the wound it kills the BAC Bia
2:00
and helps repair the damaged tissue and
2:02
once that happens the immune system
2:04
helps to control the inflammation and
2:05
bring the area around the wound back to
2:08
normal it's pretty similar to what
2:09
happens when we exercise and it's a
2:11
perfect example of what your body can do
2:13
and how cool it really is the other type
2:16
of inflammation however is called
2:17
chronic systemic inflammation chronic
2:20
means it goes on continuously for a long
2:22
time without being properly controlled
2:24
by the immune system and systemic means
2:26
that its effect is spread out over a lot
2:28
of the body and isn't localized to a
2:30
small area like a wound or a muscle
2:32
after exercise chronic systemic
2:34
inflammation can be a problem because
2:36
elevated levels of markers of
2:38
inflammation in the blood are linked
2:40
with a lot of chronic diseases like
2:43
atherosclerosis which is a type of heart
2:45
disease type 2 diabetes asthma
2:47
inflammatory bowel disease rheumatiod
2:50
and even cancer but before we talk about
2:52
how our lifestyle affects inflammation
2:54
we need to know how inflammation is
2:55
measured and that brings up a bit of a
2:57
problem you see inflammation is
2:59
controlled by by signaling chemicals in
3:01
our body called cyto kindes and there
3:03
are a lot of different cyto kindes that
3:05
are thought to be pro-inflammatory most
3:07
studies that investigate inflammation
3:09
measure a number of different cyto
3:10
kindes or markers of inflammation which
3:12
means it can be sometimes really
3:14
difficult to compare studies if they use
3:16
different markers that said some of the
3:18
most common inflammatory markers that
3:19
are measured in research are substances
3:21
like C reactive protein CRP tumor
3:23
necrosis Factor alpha tnf alpha and
3:25
Inter lucans especially interlan 6 or
3:27
il6 but the truth is there are so many
3:30
more and the markers can even be
3:32
specific to specific conditions like
3:34
rheumatoid factor in rheumatoid
3:36
arthritis and monite chemot attractant
3:38
protein mcp1 in heart disease you don't
3:42
need to know all of these but it's good
3:43
to know that there are lots which can
3:45
make comparing research a little bit
3:47
harder now that that's out of the way
3:49
let's talk about how our lifestyle and
3:51
especially our diet can affect chronic
3:53
inflammation so most people want to know
3:56
if specific foods cause inflammation and
3:58
the answer is no but let's use a few
4:02
examples here nightshades for example
4:04
are a group of vegetables that include
4:06
Tomatoes orine potatoes and peppers and
4:08
they get a lot of bad press from some
4:10
people in the wellness industry who
4:12
claim that they cause inflammation the
4:14
thing is if you look at the scientific
4:16
research on night shades that doesn't
4:17
seem to be the case at all in one trial
4:20
of 106 female students who were
4:21
overweight or obese participants were
4:23
given either 330 Ms per day of tomato
4:26
juice or water for 20 days at the end
4:28
the group drinking the tomato juice
4:29
showed lower levels of inflammatory
4:31
markers specifically il6 il8 and tumor
4:35
necrosis Factor Alpha depending on their
4:36
degree of overweight or obesity on top
4:38
of that a systematic review and
4:40
metaanalysis of randomized control
4:42
trials which combined and analyzed the
4:43
results of seven studies with 465
4:46
participants found that while eating
4:47
tomatoes didn't reduce CRP or il6 it can
4:50
reduce tnf Alpha One of the possible
4:54
reasons for this is that tomatoes are
4:55
rich in lopine a polyphenol that has
4:57
powerful antioxidant and anti
4:59
anti-inflammatory properties even
5:01
potatoes which get so much bad press
5:03
these days don't seem to be a problem
5:05
for inflammation in a 6 we study they
5:07
gave men 150 gr of either cooked white
5:10
potatoes yellow potatoes or purple
5:11
potatoes once per day and measured blood
5:14
levels of a number of markers of
5:15
inflammation after the 6 weeks the
5:17
levels of inflammation didn't increase
5:19
and in fact levels of CRP were
5:21
significantly lower in the group eating
5:23
the purple potatoes levels of oxidative
5:26
damage were also lower in the groups
5:27
eating yellow and purple potatoes
5:29
compared to the white potatoes again
5:31
probably due to the higher levels of
5:32
polyphenols in the more colorful spots
5:35
now earlier when I said specific Foods
5:37
don't cause inflammation I also said But
5:39
the thing is that's the truth in the
5:41
vast majority of people but some people
5:43
just don't react well to certain foods
5:45
and that can be for a number of reasons
5:47
like allergies or intolerances and if
5:49
you know that you don't react well to a
5:51
certain food for example if it causes
5:53
you stomach pain or you notice a rash
5:55
developing after you eat it avoid these
5:56
foods and speak to your GP but that
5:59
doesn't mean that that is going to be a
6:00
problem for everyone else so in most
6:02
cases if it's not specific foods that
6:04
are causing issues with inflammation
6:06
what's the actual culprit well that's a
6:09
much more complicated question but in
6:11
essence a big part of the problem is
6:13
probably the overall dietary pattern
6:16
that people follow these days almost 60%
6:19
of the calories eaten in countries like
6:21
the UK and the United States come from
6:22
Ultra processed foods or
6:28
upfsf4mggas but we do know that eating
6:30
more
6:32
upfsi overall and more calories overall
6:35
leads to weight gain you see higher
6:37
levels of body fat actually lead to
6:38
stress in our atopos or fatty tissue
6:41
usually due to a lack of delivery of
6:43
oxygen to the tissue this stress
6:45
triggers the beginning of an
6:46
inflammatory response that doesn't come
6:49
under control as long as body fat levels
6:51
are still high this chronic systemic
6:53
inflammation leads to major problems
6:55
like insulin resistance and diabetes
6:57
metabolic syndrome and heart disease we
6:59
also have a lot of studies that show
7:01
that intentional weight loss actually
7:03
leads to drops in inflammatory markers
7:05
like C reactor protein tum necrosis
7:07
Factor Alpha and il6 and even leads to
7:11
increases in anti-inflammatory markers
7:13
like adaptin interestingly doing a high
7:16
fat low carb diet or a high carb lowfat
7:18
diet doesn't have any effect on the
7:20
benefits of weight loss no matter if
7:22
someone is eating lots of carbs or lots
7:24
of fat if they lose body weight they'll
7:26
reduce their markers of inflammation so
7:29
instead in of it being the consumption
7:30
of specific Foods it may actually be the
7:33
overc consumption of food in general
7:35
that leads to increases in body fat and
7:36
markers of inflammation losing excess
7:39
body weight is one way to effectively
7:41
reduce levels of chronic inflammation
7:43
but on top of the extra calories that
7:45
people get from
7:49
upfsi and generally diets that are
7:51
higher in processed and ultr processed
7:53
foods are lower in Whole Foods like
7:55
fruit vegetables whole grains nuts seeds
7:58
and legumes
7:59
these foods are full of beneficial
8:01
nutrients such as vitamins minerals
8:03
essential fatty acids fiber and
8:04
polyphenols which may actually help
8:06
lower our body's inflammation levels
8:09
these foods are full of beneficial
8:10
nutrients such as vitamins minerals
8:12
essential fatty acids fiber and
8:14
polyphenols which may actually help our
8:16
bodies to control inflammation levels
8:18
this is why dietary patterns that are
8:20
high in Whole Foods like I just
8:21
mentioned are often associated with
8:23
lower levels of inflammation all of
8:25
these nutrients affect inflammation in
8:27
different ways essential fatty acids for
8:28
example are directly involved in
8:30
anti-inflammatory or resolving Cascades
8:33
that actually help to reduce the
8:35
inflammatory process polyphenols is a
8:36
wide group of substances but some of the
8:38
ways that they can affect inflammation
8:40
is by activating the body's own
8:41
antioxidant defense systems which brings
8:43
inflammation down dietary fiber might
8:45
reduce inflammation by helping people
8:46
with weight loss by helping people feel
8:48
Fuller and eat less overall and by
8:50
promoting a healthier gut microbiome
8:52
leading to less production of markers of
8:54
inflammation in the gut so as you can
8:56
see what you're not eating can also have
8:59
a a big impact on levels of inflammation
9:01
so making sure you get plenty of
9:02
nutrient dense Whole Foods especially
9:05
whole plant Foods is a very healthy
9:07
dietary approach this goes hand inhand
9:10
with eating less Ultra processed and
9:12
refined foods which tend to be devoid of
9:14
those beneficial nutrients and really
9:16
just provide calories now just before I
9:18
finish up it's worth pointing out there
9:19
are other non-diet lifesty factors that
9:21
can influence inflammation too and one
9:23
of the most important ones is regular
9:25
exercise like I said earlier immediately
9:27
after about of exercise we normally see
9:29
a shortterm increase in markers of
9:31
inflammation but in the long term higher
9:34
levels of exercise are associated with
9:35
lower levels of chronic or long-term
9:37
inflammation now some of that effect is
9:39
probably caused by exercise leading to
9:41
lower levels of body fat but there is
9:43
plenty of evidence to suggest that the
9:45
Metabolic Effect of exercise especially
9:46
at higher intensities and especially a
9:49
mixture of cardio and strength training
9:51
seems to have the biggest effect on
9:53
lowering inflammation so if we're going
9:55
to summarize everything we've just
9:56
discussed here are some of the key
9:57
points for avoiding chronic inflammation
10:00
maintain a healthy body weight or
10:02
specifically avoiding excess body fat
10:04
control calorie intake and avoid excess
10:08
especially excess ultr processed foods
10:10
focus on nutrient-dense whole foods rich
10:13
in vitamins minerals essential fats
10:15
fiber and polyphenols basically eat lots
10:17
of colorful plants avoid Foods you know
10:20
you have a definite negative reaction to
10:23
like allergies get plenty of regular
10:25
exercise including cardio and resistance
10:27
exercise for the vast majority of people
10:29
following an all around healthy
10:31
lifestyle is exactly what you need to do
10:33
to avoid excess inflammation so should
10:36
you focus on trying to reduce
10:37
inflammation with your diet absolutely
10:39
not you don't need to just eat well now
10:43
obviously I haven't covered everything
10:45
to do with food diet and inflammation
10:47
it's a huge topic with lots of nuances
10:50
especially how it relates to individuals
10:52
instead of the general population but I
10:54
do hope this video is giv you a much
10:55
better understanding of inflammation and
10:58
diet as always if you have any more
10:59
questions let me know in the comments
11:01
below and remember to like And subscribe
11:02
to my protein YouTube channel for more
11:04
great evidence-based nutrition
11:08
[Music]
11:11
information
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