Chronic Inflammation: Diet, Vagus Nerve, Environment, and Blood Sugar Interventions

Key Quotes

"So inflammation single-handedly causing more disease in this country than anything else. And you're right, where it is loosely termed, but in reality, I see with my ten clinics probably 350 patients a day, and we see patients from all over the world that are suffering from severe chronic conditions. And in reality, when they come to us, we look at a bunch of other physiological imbalances, but what we're really getting to is what's causing inflammation? Do they have inflammation? What's triggering it? What's causing it? And how can we get it to calm down?"

Dr. Josh Redd emphasizes that inflammation is the root cause of numerous diseases, impacting a vast number of patients he sees daily. He explains that identifying and calming inflammation is the primary goal in treating severe chronic conditions, leading to significant improvements in patients' quality of life.

"Yeah, I think a lot of different ways: joint pain, intestinal problems, brain fog, depression. Like the way we're treating depression right now is if you have a decreased neurotransmitter, you just replace it. And that's old school. Right now, we're seeing that if you have brain inflammation, then it decreases all neurotransmitters and causes tons of problems. So even depression, fatigue, anxiety, restlessness, neurobehavioral issues, it's felt in a ton of different ways."

Dr. Josh Redd details how inflammation manifests physically and mentally, extending beyond typical symptoms like joint pain. He highlights that brain inflammation can lead to decreased neurotransmitters, causing issues like depression, fatigue, and anxiety, which are often overlooked or misdiagnosed.

"Gluten. Gluten's hands down the worst one. And then the second one is dairy, and then sugar. And obviously there's, there's kind of a difference between conventional dairy and whole milk and things like that, but mainly just conventional dairy that really jacks up our patients. And with research, it shows that the casein protein, which is the dairy protein, it mimics the gluten protein pretty similarly. And so our immune system gets confused, and those two are kind of go hand in hand to be in some of the most common inflammatory triggers for our patients."

Dr. Josh Redd identifies gluten and dairy as the most common inflammatory triggers for his patient population, explaining that the casein protein in dairy mimics gluten, confusing the immune system. He notes that sugar also contributes significantly to inflammatory problems.

"A hundred percent. Yeah. And that's kind of the big goal for us is we want to address what their specific inflammatory foods are versus the next patient. Everyone has a little bit different foods that they react to for some reason or another. But the most common overall in a general standpoint is dairy and gluten. And then obviously there's sugar, insulin surges and and all that stuff causes a lot of inflammatory problems and issues too. But those three are probably the top that we see."

Dr. Josh Redd reiterates that while dairy and gluten are generally the most common inflammatory triggers, individual reactions vary. He emphasizes that identifying a patient's specific food triggers is a key goal, alongside managing sugar intake and blood sugar stability, to reduce overall inflammation.

"Yeah, I love digestive enzymes because you're just aiding in helping those food proteins break down, right? So you're minimizing the workload that your body will have to do, especially if we're eating inflammatory foods. What I like to do even better though is to get to the mechanism of why they don't have the proper digestive enzymes functioning, right? A lot of people don't know, and a lot of like health practitioners out there, they'll see a lot of chronic severe cases, and they'll work with the stomach, the liver, the hormones, the blood sugar levels, but they completely neglect the brain."

Dr. Josh Redd explains that while digestive enzymes can aid in breaking down food proteins, he prioritizes addressing the root cause of poor enzyme function, which often lies in the brain. He points out that many practitioners overlook the brain's role in signaling the digestive system, leading to insufficient enzyme production.

"Yeah, yeah. So a lot of different ways that you can do that. Um, one is gargling aggressively for two to three minutes. Uh, you can stimulate the vagal nuclei. I have a hilarious story, by the way. So I had a patient just recently, she was constipated, and she was a new patient. Uh, and we had her start the anti-inflammatory diet and some supplements to help improve some things. And, um, she's like, "Dr. Redd, I'm constipated." And I was like, "Okay, well, um," she's like, "Can I take anything to help with the constipation?" And I said, "Well, how about we do this? Just, just gargle water aggressively for two to three minutes every hour until you go to bed." It was like at 5:00 PM. And she's like, "Okay, I'll do that." Um, and all of a sudden, I got a text, "Dr. Redd, I pooped." But just by, you know, doing that, that stimulates the vagal nuclei and then stimulates blood flow to the gut and will help gut motility and all that stuff. And it works."

Dr. Josh Redd shares a patient anecdote to illustrate the power of vagal nerve stimulation through aggressive gargling. He explains that this action stimulates the vagal nuclei, which in turn enhances blood flow to the gut and improves motility, effectively resolving constipation in this case.

"Well, we're constantly being exposed to different things. And I'll preface this, there's, there might be some people that listen to this like, 'Oh my gosh, I can't make all these changes all at once.' And I would just preface, just start with one easy change that you can make and then look to improve it. And the same thing goes with your home, right? Where if you go into your home and you're using, um, soap that's full of artificial and synthetic things that are hazardous to your health, just get a more natural soap, right? Or, um, laundry detergent, for example, get a more natural laundry detergent."

Dr. Josh Redd advises a gradual approach to cleaning up one's home environment, suggesting starting with simple swaps like using natural soaps or laundry detergents. He emphasizes that reducing exposure to artificial and synthetic chemicals in household products lowers one's environmental and inflammatory load.

"A thousand percent. Yes. I mean, you look at like COVID, dude. I can, I go to a workout and my bench was just lathered with crap, and I'm like, this, that's worse for you than, you know, I would rather sit on a bench that has somebody's sweat on it, honestly, than a bench that's still wet from the from them wiping it down with one of these like, you're completely jacking up our our sheets."

Dr. Josh Redd agrees with