We often make medicine more complex than it really is. That’s because the underlying cause of chronic disease is increased inflammation. What we see as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s are not different diseases, but simply different manifestations of long-term damage caused by a continued inflammatory attack on your organs.
There are two types of inflammation. The first is classical inflammation that hurts because of organ damage. This is what forces you go to a doctor. The second type is far more insidious and far more dangerous. I call this silent inflammation. This type of inflammation causes no pain therefore you do nothing to stop it. But after years, if not decades of constant inflammatory attack, there is enough organ damage that you call it chronic disease.
Silent inflammation is an indicator of the inflammatory potential at the cellular level. It is not a disease, but high levels of silent inflammation are the first indication that you are no longer well. There is no drug that can reverse silent inflammation, but the anti-inflammatory Zone Diet can.
How do you know if you have silent inflammation? The ideal way is taking a blood test just as you would to determine your cholesterol levels. But if you are like me, you probably hate giving blood. Fortunately there are some questions you can ask yourself to give you an indication that you may have high levels of silent inflammation. No one question is sufficient, but if you can answer yes to more than three of these questions, you probably have elevated levels of silent inflammation. Here are the questions, simply ask yourself:
Are you overweight?
Are you taking a cholesterol-lowering drug?
Are you taking hypertensive drugs like beta-blockers or diuretics?
Are you constantly craving carbohydrates?
Are you continually fatigued?
Are you groggy upon waking?
Do you have brittle fingernails?
You are probably thinking that the vast majority of Americans may have silent inflammation. After doing thousands of blood tests on “healthy” Americans I have come to the same conclusion. They are not sick enough to have a chronic disease, but they are definitely no longer well.
This explains why we spend so much on health care and have so little to show for it. Americans are not only the fattest people on the planet, but the most inflamed. But fortunately, it is possible to reverse silent inflammation in 30 days using an anti-inflammatory diet.