Chronic Inflammation:

The Alarm that Never Shuts Off

By Jessica Clancy-Strawn, MA, RDN, LD

What Calms Chronic Inflammation?

Come With Me to Balanced Bodies

Last weekend I taught Balanced Bodies, an anti-inflammatory nutrition workshop at Club Pilates. Not everyone could be in the room, so I’m bringing it to you. Press play, and consider this your seat.

Watch: Is Inflammation Quietly Wearing You Down?

A big thank-you to Club Pilates Alden Bridge for hosting, and to Biena, Yerba Madre, G2G, Paleovalley, Good Journey, Hoist, and Intoleran for the samples.

Everything I taught that night is in the article below, and in the free take-home guide at the end.

The Alarm That Never Shuts Off

When you sprain an ankle, it swells, turns red, and hurts. That’s inflammation, and it’s your immune system doing its job. It rushes repair resources to the spot, then shuts itself off when the work is done.

Now picture that alarm never turning off.

That’s chronic inflammation. It’s low-level, it lasts for months or years, and early on it rarely causes symptoms you’d notice. Your body keeps releasing signaling molecules (you may see hs-CRP, IL-6, or TNF-alpha on a lab report) long after there’s anything to repair. That quiet, constant version is the one linked to heart disease, insulin resistance, kidney disease progression, and cognitive decline.

Most conversations about hormones and inflammation are aimed at women. Men carry the same risks, so this one is for everyone.

What keeps the alarm ringing

Chronic inflammation rarely has a single cause. The usual drivers are:

Diet:

highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and added sugar
• Sleep: short or poor-quality sleep raises inflammatory markers on its own
• Stress: sustained stress keeps your body in a heightened state
• Movement: both too little and unmanaged overtraining
• Body composition: visceral (belly) fat is active tissue that releases inflammatory signals
• Hormones: age-related shifts interact closely with the immune system
• Hidden triggers: gum disease, untreated sleep apnea, and lingering infections

These drivers feed each other. Poor sleep worsens insulin resistance, which adds belly fat, which raises inflammation, which disrupts sleep. The loop works in reverse too: interrupting it at two or three points works far better than trying to perfect one.

Hormones: it’s not just menopause

For women, perimenopause and menopause bring hormone shifts that interact with the immune system. That’s why many women notice changes in sleep, weight, joints, and energy in their 40s and 50s.

For men, the shift is quieter. Testosterone tends to decline gradually with age, and it doesn’t come with a clear milestone the way menopause does. Several drivers above are linked to both lower testosterone and higher inflammation: extra belly fat, poor sleep, and untreated sleep apnea. If you’re a man who snores, wakes up tired, and has been gaining weight around the middle, that combination is worth a conversation with your doctor.

For both, your thyroid affects energy, weight, skin, and hair. Autoimmune thyroid conditions are themselves inflammatory.

Signs people miss

These often get written off as aging, stress, or a bad night’s sleep:

• Low back pain, or joint stiffness first thing in the morning
• Bleeding or tender gums
• Getting sick more often than seems normal
• Fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest, and brain fog
• Disrupted sleep, which also drives inflammation up
• Flank or hip pain, which is worth a conversation about kidney function rather than assuming a pulled muscle

None of these is a diagnosis. Each has several possible causes. They’re simply worth mentioning to your doctor instead of ignoring.

What your hair, skin, and nails are telling you

Before I became a dietitian, I spent 18 years behind the chair as a cosmetologist, and hair tells you a lot.

Thinning hair or sudden shedding is often tied to low iron (ferritin specifically), zinc, or protein, as well as thyroid function and prolonged stress. Dry, easily irritated skin is linked to low omega-3 intake and an underactive thyroid. Brittle, ridged nails are a classic sign of both iron deficiency and low thyroid.

Men: gradual thinning at the crown or temples is often genetic. Sudden, noticeable shedding is more likely to point to something treatable, and that’s worth checking with labs.

Start with labs, so the foods and any supplements you choose target what your body actually needs.

Labs worth asking about

Chronic disease is often silent until it’s advanced. That’s why routine bloodwork matters even when you feel fine.

• eGFR and UACR: how well your kidneys filter, and an early sign of kidney stress
• Creatinine and BUN: kidney waste clearance
• HbA1c or fasting glucose: blood sugar over time
• Lipid panel and blood pressure: heart risk factors
• hs-CRP: a general marker of inflammation
• Ferritin: iron stores, which matter for hair shedding and fatigue
• Thyroid panel (TSH, free T4): energy, weight, skin, and hair
• Hormones: for women with perimenopause or menopause symptoms, a hormone panel; for men with symptoms like low energy or low libido, ask whether a morning testosterone test makes sense

Two things worth saying at your next appointment:

1. “I’d like to know my kidney numbers.” eGFR and UACR aren’t always run routinely, and kidney disease is often silent until it’s advanced.
2. “Can we check ferritin, not just hemoglobin?” Your iron stores can be low even when a standard anemia screen looks normal.

What to eat

Four eating patterns have strong anti-inflammatory evidence. They share one thread:

• Mediterranean: olive oil, fish, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts. It’s the most studied of the four.
• DASH: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and low sodium. It was designed for blood pressure.
• Lower-carbohydrate: less refined carbohydrate and added sugar, helpful when blood sugar is the main issue.
• Nordic: fatty fish, berries, root vegetables, and rye.

What they have in common is minimally processed food, plenty of fiber and healthy fat, less refined carbohydrate, added sugar, and processed meat, and more color on your plate.

Some foods with high measured antioxidant capacity are walnuts, pecans, blueberries, dark chocolate (70% or higher), artichokes, kale, pomegranate, strawberries, and yes, coffee. Don’t chase the top of any list, though. The strawberries you actually eat beat the exotic powder you never buy.

Spices count too. Put cinnamon in your coffee, add oregano and thyme to whatever you’re cooking, grate fresh ginger into tea, and roast vegetables with rosemary. Keep your spices where you can see them.

As a dietitian quoted in The Epoch Times, EatingWell, and Good Housekeeping, I get asked about eating well in midlife all the time. Read my take: The surprising superfood for everyone over 50 →

Source for antioxidant rankings: Carlsen et al., Nutrition Journal, 2010.

Move, but don’t punish your body

Regular, low-impact movement like Pilates, walking, and swimming helps regulate your immune system. Add strength training two or three times a week. Muscle matters for blood sugar and aging in men and women alike. You don’t need to exhaust your body to help it heal.

Your next step: pick two

1. One food swap you already like
2. One sleep or stress change. Sleep is the most underrated item on this list.
3. Consistent movement you’ll keep doing
4. Labs, if it’s been more than a year. Knowing your numbers turns vague worry into a plan.

Get the free take-home guide

Everything in this article, plus more, is in my 11-page Balanced Bodies guide. It includes the labs page to bring to your doctor, the full top 25 antioxidant foods, spice swaps, and the four eating patterns side by side.

Download the free Balanced Bodies guide →

For short videos on inflammation, labels, and eating well, follow me on YouTube and Instagram.

Check out my last  blog:

Want one-on-one help?

I see clients through Nourish, a telehealth platform covered by most insurance: signup.nourish.com/providers/jessica-strawn

My 14-Day Experiment: Sleep, Stress, and Blood Sugar

Jessica puts her own habits to the test with Lingo. Lingo provided my sensor at no cost. All opinions are my own.

Everything above comes back to one idea: sleep, stress, and food don’t act alone. So this month I’m testing it on myself. I’m wearing Lingo, Abbott’s over-the-counter glucose biosensor, for 14 days to see how three things show up in my own numbers: a short night of sleep, a stressful workday, and what I eat. If you came to Balanced Bodies at Club Pilates, you may have spotted it on my arm when I talked about tools you can use at home.

Why it matters: even one night of poor sleep can make your body less sensitive to insulin the next day, and stress hormones like cortisol push blood sugar up. A glucose sensor makes that connection visible instead of theoretical.

I’ll share what I learn on Instagram as I go, and my full results in next month’s post.

Disclosure: Lingo sent me this sensor to try. Lingo is for adults 18 and older who are not on insulin. It is not meant to diagnose diabetes or any other condition. Talk with your doctor before making changes based on your readings.

From the Book: The Quest for Family Is Headed to the Screen

If you grew up learning to read the room before you learned to read, this one’s for you.

The Quest for Family is my memoir. I was a little girl waiting alone on a cement step at dusk, long after the other parents had come. I grew into a teenager who worked her way through high school, and a cosmetologist who spent five years of salon savings on a ticket to London. I backpacked through 17 countries, came home, earned two degrees, and slowly built the family I was never given.

Why I wrote it

A counselor I trusted encouraged me to put my story on paper. I said yes because of the person I used to be: the little girl on that step, and later the young woman who believed that where she came from decided where she’d end up.

I wrote it for anyone who grew up in chaos and quietly wonders whether the pattern ends with them. It can. The book doesn’t close with a tidy ending. It closes with a prayer of forgiveness, a declaration that the cycle stops here, and that what comes next belongs to my children. The back of the book includes resources for anyone who needs them.

It’s the same reason I do the work I do now. I’ve seen the end of too many stories, in families and in health, and I believe both can be changed from the beginning.

Where the film stands now

If you’ve been following my 23-Day Mindful Eating Challenge from Europe, you’ve seen a little of why that part of the world still matters to me. The first time I crossed it, I was running toward a new life.

Not following yet? It’s not too late to join. Catch up on the series and follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and eat mindfully with me for the rest of the challenge.

Jessica Clancy-Strawn and Christie Taylor collaborators on The Orange Cassette

• The Orange Cassette, a short film adapted from the book’s opening, is named for a cassette tape recorded in Germany and mailed to my grandmother in Texas, one of the first objects in the story.
• The screenplay has been highly ranked by professional reviewers, earning a strong score of 84 out of 100. I’m grateful to be refining it with Christie B. Taylor, the author and screenwriter of The Orange Cassette, through her company RadioGyrl Media and Film, a Memphis-based media and film company whose radio programs are distributed on iHeartRadio.

Read The Quest for Family on Amazon →

Content note: this memoir covers difficult childhood experiences and is intended for adult readers.

This article is general nutrition education, not a diagnosis or treatment plan. Talk with your physician before making significant changes, especially if you’re managing a chronic condition or taking medication. Disclosure: I receive a referral fee through the Nourish creator program when someone signs up using my link. 

Lingo disclosure

Lingo sent me this sensor to try. Lingo is for adults 18 and older who are not on insulin. It is not meant to diagnose diabetes or any other condition. Talk with your doctor before making changes based on your readings.

Medical Disclaimer 

This article is general nutrition education, not a diagnosis or treatment plan. Talk with your physician before making significant changes, especially if you’re managing a chronic condition or taking medication. Disclosure: I receive a referral fee through the Nourish creator program when someone signs up using my link.