Inflammation Triggers

Chronic inflammation often starts in the gut. The same refined foods you already met disrupt the gut barrier, letting irritants leak through and spread inflammation through the body.

Alcohol is still worth taking seriously, but the inflammation-marker story is not as simple as "moderate drinking raises markers." Heavy or chronic drinking can drive inflammation, while light-to-moderate marker studies are mixed and confounded. Recent research has also walked back earlier claims about alcohol's overall health benefits, especially around cancer and mortality risk.

Stress and poor sleep amplify inflammation regardless of diet. Eating perfectly on five hours of sleep still leaves you inflamed. An anti-inflammatory lifestyle works on all three: food, sleep, and stress.