Over the past two weeks, we’ve covered what inflammation is and what it feels like in the body. This week, I want to tackle something that gets in the way for a lot of people: the myths.
Because there is a lot of noise around inflammation right now, and some of it is genuinely misleading. Believing the wrong thing doesn’t just waste your time and money. It can keep you stuck in a cycle that never resolves.
Here are the three I see most often.
Myth 1: “If my labs are normal, I’m not inflamed.”
Standard bloodwork doesn’t routinely test for inflammatory markers. One of the most common is C-reactive protein (CRP), a substance your liver produces when your body is under inflammatory stress. When it is included, the reference range most labs use is too broad to catch the slow, low-grade kind. You can be genuinely inflamed and still receive a clean bill of health
Myth 2: “I eat clean, so I can’t be inflamed.”
Diet is one input among many. Chronic stress, poor sleep, gut dysfunction, and environmental exposures all drive inflammation independently of what you eat. A clean diet is foundational, but it isn’t the whole picture.
Myth 3: “Anti-inflammatory foods can cancel out everything else.”
No single food or supplement undoes a lifestyle that promotes inflammation. Blueberries are wonderful. They are not canceling out four hours of sleep and a high-stress work environment. It is the overall pattern of diet, sleep, stress, movement, and environment that determines your inflammatory load.
Three things you can do this week:
1. Read an ingredient label on something marketed as “anti-inflammatory.”
Look past the front of the package. What are the first five ingredients? How much sugar or refined oil is in it? This one exercise builds a useful instinct for spotting marketing versus actual substance.
2. Rate your sleep this week, not hours, quality.
Did you wake up feeling restored? Sleep is one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory tools available and one of the most chronically undervalued. Even one additional hour of quality sleep has measurable effects on inflammatory markers.
3. Identify your biggest stress driver this week.
You don’t have to fix it, just name it. Chronic psychological stress is a significant inflammatory driver, and awareness of the source is the first step to addressing it. What’s running in the background for you right now?
This month is building toward something practical, and next week we’ll get into the strategies to lower inflammation. That’s where it all comes together.
Schedule a free chat to learn more.
P.S. Substack is officially live! This is where I go deepest on all of it. Full explainers, anti-inflammatory recipes, and condition-specific meal plans for paid subscribers. Free to follow, straight to your inbox: