Eight ways to reduce chronic inflammation.
Today, weíre going to be talking about how to reduce your inflammation in your body.
Iím Dr. Carrie Lam and this is Dr. Michael Lam, my father,
authority on Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.
You know weíll start with number one.
Number one is to reduce stress, emotionally and physically. What are ways to do that?
Perhaps the most easy, free and also the most difficult
is to simplify your life.
You know, weíre living in the modern world.
We have burdens thatís placed on our emotional, our physical demands,
just way above what normal humans are designed.
We have ways to get around it but oftentimes these ways fail.
And we overload our body.
And how about meditation, breathing?
All these are good and itís proven in centuries people has been doing it.
You are able to actually, with breathing alone for example,
able to control your autonomic nervous system
and so itís a wonderful thing but the problem with adrenal issue
is that if you are weak,
improper breathing, even though they are helpful for normal people,
actually can make your worse.
You know, Iíve discovered this in my own experience throughout my own recovery
is that breathing is much more complex than what it appears to be.
The intake process and the outflow process must match the bodyís autonomic nervous system.
Over breathing actually can crash a system
and likewise, if you are not breathing properly,
you can cause an energy expenditure and sympathetic imbalance.
I have developed an adrenal breathing method
that is specific for people with adrenal issues in order
not to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system.
The key to breathing and meditation and other similar modalities thatís good
is that you want the body to relax.
If you are not in adrenal fatigue,
you want the body to be excitatory,
so people say, ìTake a deep breath
before you take a test because that will refresh your mind.
It will give you clarity of brain function.î
That is oftentimes a sympathetic-driven event but when you do that in an adrenal body,
that is somewhat weak. You can actually make things worse.
Excite them. All right.
Yeah, so if you donít know, we do have an app, Dr. Lamís Adrenal Breathing app
on the App Store for your phones and if you want to download it,
you can actually breathe with the app and that will teach them the right type of breathing.
Yeah. Itís very important that you donít overdo it. Go slow,
[unintelligible ñ 00:02:50] and start gradually move up.
So thatís our number one, reduce stress emotionally and physically, okay.
Our number two is to maintain a healthy gut. How do people do that?
Well, I mean, obviously the ideal is to have a diet that is natural, pure
and not processed is the starting point.
Avoiding of wheat, corn, dairy products,
some of the basic things everybody should be doing.
However, itís not easy to do because itís just so pervasive in all our food,
so you may have to have some enzyme, maybe some probiotics to rebalance.
But again, these are very...
has to be very personalized because when the gut is weak in an adrenal setting,
then, you know, all the enzymes can, for example, lead to diarrhea.
Over probiotics can lead to constipation.
Thereís a lot of side effects that does not happen in normal people
that can actually happen in adrenal issues and that happened to me
because I did not know all these things.
I didnít know that, for example, in probiotics,
I thought that the higher the number, the better, the more potent, the better,
but itís not necessarily so because if you put a different strains,
certain strains, if itís not well balanced, can actually make things worse.
Yeah, so to maintain a healthy gut is important, whether itís prebiotics, probiotics.
Number three is to maintain steady insulin levels.
This we see a lot in people with adrenal fatigue.
They feel very hungry all the time even though they eat very often.
How does someone maintain steady insulin levels?
Well, first is you want to make sure that you donít have a medical problem
thatís causing insulin to be imbalanced.
You have to see a regular doctor.
If you have been told that everything is fine
and you know, you have these symptoms of sugar imbalance,
then the reality is this is a temporary sign...
excuse me... that the body is sending you and whispering to you something is wrong underneath.
Yes, you want to satisfy the bodyís sugar needs if itís not able to do so by itself.
Proper snacking,
proper food intervals and the proper right combination of food, whether itís protein,
carbohydrate and fat balance are all very critical to be personalized.
I went through this because, you know, I, for example,
thought that I would do well with a vegan diet
but my body does not do well after a little while.
What works for one person does not necessarily work for other people. In the case of me,
I have to customize a diet that is just right for my body
so that I can achieve my goal.
Thatís good.
That is ways to maintain steady insulin levels.
Our number five is to... to reduce chronic inflammation,
is to avoid synthetic materials and toxic chemicals.
How do we do that?
Well, living in a world full of plastic here is not... is difficult.
The first thing in my home is I try to reduce the plastic load as much as possible.
Containers are glass for example.
These are the basic things you have to do.
You know, carpets that emits chemical films
are comfortable but at the same time, they can be toxic.
Grounding ñ thereís lots of things one can do
and Iím sure you have some tips that you can share.
Right, like BPA.
You hear about BPA being in plastic, being in canned foods, being in receipts.
Theyíre everywhere surrounding us
and you just have to kind of know what youíre getting yourself into to avoid them.
Correct. And then once theyíre in, because some of these compounds, they donít get out,
so, you know, if you think youíve been exposed, then you have to get some testing done.
For example, toxic metals, nutritional elements
to make sure they are in the well-balanced state first on the baseline.
Thatís good. Number five ñ one, two, three, four, five...
is to exercise regularly if you have chronic inflammation.
Except most people that have chronic inflammation,
sometimes they have joint pain, they say they canít exercise.
What are things they can do?
Exercise is a catch 22 because youíre right.
When youíre weak, your tendency is to be more sedentary,
but a sedentary lifestyle actually can lead to more inflammation.
I have to device in my own recovery process because I went through this
and Iím an exercise-driven person.
Iíve always been taught exercise is fantastic which I feel great,
but when I was in adrenal weakness, exercise actually made me worse.
I devised, through my own recovery,
restorative exercises thatís focused on the adrenals,
posture-related restorative exercises,
cardiac exercises, adrenal circulation exercises
and also my adrenal yoga exercises which is a special 21-part series
that takes people from almost a bed- ridden state all the way up to full vitality.
Itís a great approach and itís a very steady, systematic, comprehensive way.
Itís not a fast way to kind of hype the body and get the adrenaline going only to crash later.
Thatís number five, to exercise where you can.
Number six is to avoid polluted air.
Not saying that you have to move, but itís very hard to...
if you live by a freeway, obviously youíre breathing all these fumes.
What are some things people can do?
Well, life is not perfect and if you find yourself in this environment,
the most important thing is to hydrate.
You have to flush the body and allow the body to have plenty of fluid,
but you have to be very careful
because in adrenal issues, you donít want to be over fluid and causing electrolyte imbalances
which can backfire.
Talk to a healthcare professional, make sure youíre getting the right kind of fluids.
You want to stay away from fluids, for example, high in potassium
because people with adrenal with issues tend to already have high potassium
but normal laboratory results.
There are little fine-tuned things that you can do at home,
no matter what kind of environment you are in to do that.
It takes knowledge and it takes understanding of your body
to be able to tailor something thatís just right.
So avoid polluted air where you can. So then number seven is,
what are some proper nutritional supplements
that people can use if they already have chronic inflammation?
There are so many on the market
and each compound has its good properties as well as its negative properties.
Anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine,
anti...
what do you call it...
supplements that reduce inflammation can include vitamin C,
can include many other things.
Turmeric. We hear a lot about that.
Turmeric, cumin, fish oil.
All these anti-inflammatory but the purity is very important.
For example, you take a fish oil pill
versus fish oil that comes in glass bottle thatís more likely [unintelligible ñ 00:10:17],
the effect on the body is very different.
Now, for most people, they donít appreciate necessarily
because itís just another fish oil, but for a body thatís weak,
the amount of energy that it takes
just to break open the fish oil can be [unintelligible ñ 00:10:34] to certain people.
You got to be careful.
Proper nutritional supplementation is very important then.
Itís one of the most critical part
but it is also unfortunately one of the parts that people make the most mistake on
because they assume that they know what theyíre doing.
In fact, they try heroic efforts to get the best
but best means different things to different people,
and what is best for one person is not necessarily is best for you.
And so weíll go to number eight, which a lot of people probably try already.
It is to avoid trigger foods.
Right, so the inflammatory foods, things that are processed,
high in salt, high in fat.
Fried foods obviously come to mind, canned foods.
You always want to buy organic.
You want to see what are your triggers because every person is very different, right?
Yes.
Find out your triggers, try to eat very cleanly
and see what is causing your inflammation.
Thatís our top eight for ways to reduce inflammation for today.
We thank you for watching our video today.