Inflammation can heal you, debilitate you, or it can ultimately kill you. The endocrine system releases molecules that are chemical signalers that work to keep your inflammation in check. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to increase those chemical signalers - maybe even increase their numbers exponentially? There is.
Inflammation has a positive role in healing wounds and fighting infection. The swelling, redness, and warmth are signs that your immune system is sending white blood cells, immune cell-stimulating growth factors, and nutrients to the affected areas 2. After an ailment is resolved that inflammation should go away. If the inflammation persists it can lead to a number of inflammatory conditions including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, skin conditions, plus respiratory and gastrointestinal problems. It makes weight loss more difficult, and it can interfere with sleep.
Cytokines are chemical signalers that are released by the cells affected by the stress of a wound or infection; they trigger inflammation. Not all cytokines trigger inflammation. There is a subgroup of cytokines called myokines; they reduce inflammation. One of those myokines is Interleuken 6. In a Bulletproof podcast Doug McGuff, Body By Science author, had this to say about Interleuken 6:
“Interleukin 6 has an anti-inflammatory effect but it also has neat bio chemical effects. It very aggressively up regulates the uptake of glucose into the muscle cell and glucose utilization and glycogen mobilization. It also ramps up lipolysis. Mobilization of fatty acids from stored body fat and it’s ramping through the cell, through the mitochondria to do beta oxidation of fatty acids all of that is augmented and ramped up by Interleukin 6. Other things that it does, is it stimulates the release of nitric oxide which causes vessel dilation. Increasing blood flow into the skeletal muscle but it has the more long term effect with modulating blood pressure towards more optimal levels and it actually accesses a lepton surrogate to increase insulin sensitivity so it has just this one myokines has so many beneficial effects that we’re looking for."
How do we get more Interleukin 6? Dr. McGuff again:
“Interleukin 6 is liberated from contracting skeletal muscle particularly when it’s doing high intensity work but pretty much in any sort of muscular activity. It is released to some degree and it increases as the intensity of exercise rises, it’s released in exponentially greater degree.”
At our Austin Strength Training and New Orleans Strength Training locations with our clients we use a high intensity strength training protocol, a protocol that exponentially produces more anti-inflammatory myokines.
With inflammatory conditions such as arthritis the wrong exercise can inflame joints even more. The trick is to work the muscles without inflaming the joints. We have an extensive line of MedX equipment with medical rehab features that are gentler on the joints. We also employ a low-impact exercise protocol that minimized forces place on the joints. This allows us to safely work the muscles intensely. For arthritis pain sufferers this results in stronger muscles, increased mobility, and decreased inflammation, and protection of the joints to facilitate a life uncompromised by pain. For arthritis pain sufferers the positive results can be surprising, sometimes well beyond anything you would expect.