Recently, we have received many questions from our trainers with regard to training clients that experience chronic inflammation, swollen joints, and joint pain. As always, it is imperative during the Client Consult phase, to go through a careful Health Screening Process with any client and ensure your client has been through a physical examination with their Physician.

Before we address possible treatments for inflammation, it is important to understand the cause.

Inflammation is not an evil manifestation that randomly transpires in the body. Inflammation plays an important part in your immune system. According to Keenan Walket, Ph.D, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, “Inflammation is, very basically, the body’s reaction to something that’s not supposed to be there.” Inflammation occurs in order to repair your body and keep it healthy.

I’m sure you have experienced a cut on your knee or a bee sting. The red, swollen, painful area that resulted was inflammation flooding the area in order to repair the damaged tissue. This temporary, short-lived inflammation is known as Acute inflammation. Inflammation is released, the cycle of destruction and repair happens relatively quickly (a few hours to a few days), and everything goes back to normal.

Chronic Inflammation and Food Connections

Chronic inflammation is a different story. While the same process occurs, the inflammation lingers for much longer periods of time (weeks, months, even years) as a result of the threat not being neutralized. In some cases, even after the invader has been nullified, inflammation persists.

Clients that are overweight are experiencing chronic inflammation. The body recognizes the excessive fat cells as a threat. In order to eliminate the threat, the body continues to pump out more white blood cells. Until the fat cells are diminished, the body will stay in a constant state of inflammation.

If a client tells you they are experiencing more joint pain and inflammation than normal, ask them what they have been eating the past few days. You will likely see a direct correlation between a “cheat week” and more pain.

I had a client, who was in great shape by today's standards. She was in her 50s, a little overweight, but ate healthy for the most part. Along with our workouts, she would also go walking every day. She came to me by her Doctor’s recommendation due to her recent weight gain, and persistent joint pain. She made great progress, we got her weight into a much healthier category and her joint pain immensely improved.

During the summer, she went camping for a week and was experiencing extremely painful inflammation by the time she returned. She believed it was from the hiking, but she hikes daily, and I knew immediately that was not the cause.

Yes, she was hiking, however, she was also eating hotdogs, cold cuts, brats, and s'mores, galore, for a week. Eating highly fatty foods for a week can be detrimental to chronic inflammation. She couldn’t believe eating unhealthy for a week would impact her body to such an extreme degree. A few weeks later, she took the same camping trip, but this time we put together a healthy meal plan. She had the opportunity to eat a few fun camping foods, but for the most part, we had a solid strategy. When she returned, she had no joint pain.

Food and Supplement Recommendations

Food Recommendations

What you eat, and drink can either promote or combat inflammation. The foods that are generally deemed unhealthy are the same ones that promote inflammation.

Foods that cause inflammation:

• Sugar: desserts, commercial cereals, specialty coffee drinks (watch out for sneaky foods like yogurt, sauces, frozen breakfast foods, canned fruit, canned soups, instant oatmeals)
• Saturated Fats: pizza, cheese
• Trans Fats/Fried Foods: fast foods, processed snacks
• MSG (Mono-sodium glutamate) is often found in prepared Asian food, some soy sauces, dressings, and meats.
• Processed Meats: hotdogs, brats
• Refined Carbohydrates: white bread/rolls/crackers, pasta, pastries
• Red Meats: burgers, steaks (Grass-fed, Drug, and Hormone Free are healthier choices)
• Margarine: shortening, lard
• Oils: hydrogenated oils, vegetable oils, seed oils, watch out for salad dressings
• Drinks: soda, other sugar-sweetened beverages such as juices, energy drinks, excessive alcohol

While most of these foods are no-brainers, McDonald's happy meal is clearly a no-go, other foods might surprise you with the number of unhealthy ingredient levels. While apple sauce or a granola bar might seem like a great snack, they are often loaded with sugar.

Pay special attention to the “add-on foods.” After spending the time to make the perfect healthy salad, before adding salad dressing, be sure to check the label, you might just be pounding tablespoons of sugar without even realizing it.

Foods that fight inflammation:

• Nuts and Seeds: flaxseeds, almonds, walnuts
• Fruits: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, oranges, cherries
• Green Leafy Vegetables: spinach, kale, collard greens
• Fish: salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, herring, trout
• Beverages: coffee (not a 500-calorie Frappuccino…actual coffee), cocoa, green tea
• Oils: Olive oil, flaxseed oil, coconut oil

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