Chronic inflammatory diseases are the most significant cause of death in the world. 1) Diabetes 2) Cardiovascular disease 3) Arthritis 4) Allergies 5) COPD Risk factors 1) Age: Increased age is positively correlated with elevated levels of several inflammatory molecules. It may be due to mitochondrial dysfunction of free radical accumulation over time or visceral body fat. It does not mean that you should be ill all the time with age. The fact is then once ageing, your body function slows down in terms of proprioreception, immune response, digestive system and more. Therefore, it is better for you to keep up with your physical activity and diet. 2) Obesity - excess fats in the body can damage the mitochondria of each cell, triggering the response of the immune system leading to inflammation. Obesity is associated with a number of chronic diseases. Once you are obese, you are more likely to be exposed to the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, strokes and various autoimmune diseases. 3) Diet: saturated fats and trans fats Why is that? Trans fats are created by adding hydrogen to unsaturated fats, so as to make them tasty and last forever over the counter. Adding hydrogen to unsaturated fats can make the fats semi-solid which can last long and often does not state an expiratory date. Trans fats can imbalance gut flora (bacteria in the gut that is needed to break down foods and help the gut absorb nutrients). Then, it can lead to the risk of leaky gut syndrome that allows unwanted molecules of infection or/and foods to pass through the gut barrier into the blood stream. In other words, the gaps of the gut barrier become wider enough for them to seep through. However, those gaps narrow again in 15 to 20 mins. If trans fats including baked gluten bread digested over a long period of time, it can cause leaky gut, eventually triggering the response of immune system with inflammatory reaction. Trans fats as bad fats can also increase low lipoprotein level cholesterol, which is known as bad cholesterol, resulting in the damage of the blood vessel wall, causing the response of the immune system with inflammatory reaction. 4) Smoking: lowering the production of anti-inflammatory molecules. it damages your respiratory system, causing inflammation. Eventually, it restricts the expansion of your respiratory tract. The thing is that when you have shortness of breath, it can cause the dysfucntion of the lymphatic system. Why is that? your lymph that needs to be filtered through lymph nodes from the feet to the neck need active transport mechanism such as muscular contraction, peristalsis, pulsation and respiration. Why is that? the fluid in the feet is too far away from the heart as a body pump. It needs a lot of "push" towards the upper body. during inhalation, the pressure in the thoracic cavity lowers whereas the abdominal pressure goes up. This will help the lymph get pushed up towards the heart. Imagine! you have got some breathing restriction. You are losing this advantageous pump which can cause compensatory actions such as forward head posture, tight neck muscles and more in order to breath better. why forward head posture? - Forward head posture can cause tight muscles or vice versa. However, this may be due to the restricted diaphragmatic movement that results in lack of oxygen transport into the lower airways. Therefore, forward head posture can help you get air into your upper airways instead. 5) Low sex hormones: - estrogen and testosterone can suppress the production secretion of several pain-inflammtory makers. 6) Stress and sleep disorders having stress is also a risk factor of chronic diseases. Why is that? It is associated with cortisol production in the body. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is produces in the pituitary glands on the kidneys once we are stressed. Is it very relieving that we have this stress hormone that reduces our stress levels. For instance, when we are in pain, we get stressed. Why? it is annoying for us to have that kind of unpleasant sensation. Once it happens, your pituitary glands start producing cortisol to dampen down the response of your immune response. What triggers your immune response? Yes! when your brain catches danger signals in your body, it send pain signals to where the original site of the danger by causing pain, redness, inflammation and heat. Cortisol's main role is to reduce the activation of the immune system, in order to decrease your pain levels. Alternatively, you may want to have a cortisone injection or NSAIDs for pain relief. However, my point here is "stress" which is the root of the problem here. not the lack of cortisol in your body. it is automatically produced and accumulates for pain-relief. Think this way! You don't want to have a lot of stress hormone in your body. It is not a happy hormone like dopamine that is produced when we do things that make us happy such as eating foods and exercises. Once chronically cortisol accumulates in the body, the body is used to the accumulated cortisol, causing cortisol resistance. This is same as insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. What does this mean? Yes! the cortisol is less likely to combine with cortisol receptors to be able to slow down the immune system. This means that you need more and more cortisol for the cortisol resistance. Therefore, you may end up getting a cortisol injection for pain relief which is a temporary solution due to the cortisol resistance. You have tons of cortisol in your body now. Why would you want to have more? same to type 2 diabetes. Why would you want to have an insulin injection for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes? The main problem here is "your stress"! not lack of your cortisol levels" Having too much cortisol can cause many health problems. Cortisol is catabolic, meaning that it breaks things down. Commonly, it prevents synthesis of protein in your musculoskeletal system such as muscle growth and bone density. Therefore, it is common to see high risk of rein jury rate following a cortisol injection. On top of that, too many cortisol injection can weaken your connective tissues. Why? Again, cortisol is catabolic. I understand that it is impossible to avoid stress in contemporary society. BUT clearly, you do not need more cortisol