How inflammation impacts your health – and the role hormones play
- Inflammation is our body’s response to injury or infection
- However sometimes inflammation can persist, damaging your tissues and leaving you at risk of diseases
- Discover the relationship between hormones and inflammation – plus ways to reduce inflammation
Inflammation is part of your body’s natural response to harm such as injury or infection, helping to protect and promote healing.
But what happens when inflammation goes into overdrive and your body begins to work against you? And what impact can hormone changes – such as during perimenopause and menopause – have on inflammation levels in your body?
Join Dr Louise Newson’s YouTube live all about inflammation and hormones on 1 June at 6pm GMT here
What is inflammation?
When you have an injury or infection, your immune system springs into action, sending white blood cells to the affected area. There are various different white blood cells and one of the most important ones is called a macrophage. These macrophages produce cytokines, which are small proteins that control inflammation in your body and work to kill off harmful invaders such as germs, bacteria and viruses, and repairing damage to injured tissues. The amount and type of cytokines produced by macrophages is constantly changing in your body.
Acute and chronic inflammation: what’s the difference?
There are two types of inflammation: acute, and chronic. Acute inflammation is an immediate, short-term response to an event such as stubbing your toe, or developing an infection after cutting your finger. Redness, swelling around injured joints or tissues, pain and heat are all signs that your body is working to fix any damage, as well as signaling that you need to rest up while you recover.
When you are healed – usually within a few hours or days – your body switches off these inflammatory responses and everything should return to normal. However, problems can arise when this inflammatory response fails to switch off once the danger has passed. Under the wrong environment in the body, macrophages can actually become pro-inflammatory, which means they work differently and produce cytokines that actually damage tissues and lead to diseases occurring. Smoking, drinking alcohol, eating processed foods and having a sedentary lifestyle can all increase inflammation in your body.
This damage can lead to symptoms such as long-term pain joint and muscle stiffness, as well as fatigue, anxiety and depression. It can also increase the risk of developing inflammatory diseases including cardiovascular disease, arthritis and osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancers, Parkinson’s disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and even dementia.
In a recent episode of the Dr Louise Newson Podcast, Dr Rupy Aujla used the analogy of inflammation as your body’s ‘internal campfire’, providing warmth and protection when in balance, but becoming harmful if it burns too intensely.
‘You need enough inflammation, because inflammation signals to your immune cells,’ he said.
‘It fights off pathogens. It is a beautiful system that we evolved to have because it protects us from things like environmental pollutants as well.
‘Too much inflammation can do the opposite, and this is where there is a connection between mental health issues, dementia, type two diabetes, osteoporosis, these are all inflammatory conditions as well, where our immune system has gone out of whack.’
How can menopause and other hormone changes impact inflammation?
During perimenopause and menopause, women can experience an increase in body inflammation, which is due to the decline in the hormones oestradiol (the most beneficial form of oestrogen), progesterone and testosterone.
This is because the surface of macrophages (those white blood cells involved in the inflammatory responses) are teeming with receptors for these three hormones. For example, oestradiol can actually re-programme cytokines to work better and provide a stronger defence against harms like infection or injury.
When these three hormones are in short supply and levels are low, the macrophages won’t work as well as they should and can turn against you, becoming pro-inflammatory and damaging tissues.
How can I reduce or avoid inflammation in my body?
Natural, body-identical hormones
If you are experiencing hormone changes due to perimenopause or menopause, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is usually the first-line treatment to manage symptoms by replacing the hormones lacking in your body [1].
HRT is available in lots of formulations, and when it comes to inflammation, the type of HRT you choose to take matters. Older types of HRT contain synthetic hormones, which differ chemically to those produced naturally by your body, are associated with distinct metabolic effects and risks, such as blood clots and some cancers, and can be pro-inflammatory. In contrast, natural (also known as body identical) hormones have the same chemical structure as the hormones produced in your body, so lower inflammation and are not associated with these risks.
Synthetic oestrogen behaves quite differently from natural oestradiol, with emerging research and clinical observations suggesting that synthetic oestrogens promote inflammation rather than reduce it.
RELATED: Understanding hormones: oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone explained
Choose anti-inflammatory foods
Foods high in saturated and trans fats, processed meats, added sugar and refined carbohydrates can all contribute to levels of inflammation. Dr Rupy told the Dr Louise Newson Podcast that one way to curb inflammation is through a balanced, anti-inflammatory diet.
‘When you look at the way we live our lives, ultra processed foods, screen time, lack of sleep, stress, these are all things that tip the balance into a pro-inflammatory state,’ he said.
‘And diet is one of the ways, not the only way, but I think a core tenant of one of the ways in which we can readdress that balance by being anti-inflammatory. And the way in which we do that is, yes supporting our gut using fibre and probiotics and all the rest of it but having an antioxidant-rich diet that is varied as well.
‘Berries, greens, nuts and seeds, oily fish, these all contain things like fats and resolvins [a type of healthy fat], and there are just wonderful ingredients that will put that balance into our favour.’
RELATED: Can the Mediterranean diet help menopausal symptoms?
Exercise
Reducing inflammation is yet another reason why it pays to get plenty of regular physical exercise.
Research shows that physical activity can help to counter some types of inflammation by regulating your immune system [2]. For example, a 2016 study found that as little as 20 minutes of exercise could have anti-inflammatory effects [3]. Researchers asked 47 participants to walk on a treadmill, with blood samples taken from the participants before and immediately after exercising. Researchers found that 20 minutes of exercise reduced levels of a pro-inflammatory cytokine known as TNF.
RELATED: How much should I exercise during perimenopause and menopause?
Avoiding stress
Intense stress can over-activate your immune system, leading to the imbalance between inflammation and anti-inflammation [4]. Though at times, of course, stress is unavoidable, but try and take time for yourself to relax wherever during periods of stress, building in time for activities such as yoga, mindfulness or even some simple breathing exercises.
