Today we are discussing the challenge of silent systemic inflammation — and I have a PSA for you: Exercise could actually be increasing your risk of chronic health issues. In this episode, you will learn how and when to pay attention to estrogen and inflammation. I illustrate sneaky inflammation symptoms and also provide workout tips to strengthen your body’s ability to manage inflammation.

First, I share my personal experience with toxic mold as it attacked my immune system and triggered inflammation — and it turns out perimenopause was involved, too! I detail the link between an imbalanced workout and systemic inflammation plus three types of assessment to troubleshoot. I share how to track inflammation symptoms plus a common misconception about estrogen’s effect on the body. I believe feeling great on the journey to improved physical resilience is 100% possible, no matter what health issues are thrown your way!

If you are a woman over the age of 35 with unexpected allergies and skin issues, digestive challenges, mood changes, and/or deep fatigue. This episode is for you.

Want FREE access to my brand new four-week strength training plan, Strength Without Stress? Head over to hollyperkins.com/review where you can upload a screenshot of your review and gain immediate access. This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197, so be sure to grab it now! Stay strong my friend. 

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Topics Covered:

• My experience with toxic mold
• The link between declining estrogen and inflammation
• Misconceptions about perimenopause 
• The link between an imbalanced workout and inflammation 
• Three workout tips for combating odd symptoms 
• How to track and connect inflammation symptoms 
• How to gain FREE access to Strength Without Stress

Resources Mentioned:

• The Journal of Neuroinflammation Perimenopause article 
• Get FREE access to my 14-page nutrition guide HERE 

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Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

Inflammation in your body is actually a good thing until it becomes too high or too chronic when it then increases your risk of life threatening diseases. While there are numerous triggers of inflammation in your life, your workout shouldn't be adding more insult to injury. In this episode, you'll learn what to look for to know if your workout isn't working for you, and instead is causing the wrong kind of stress. Welcome to episode three of my brand new podcast. I am honored you're here. Today I'm talking about something that has been bothering me for a while.

And that is the misunderstood relationship between inflammation and your workouts. And it's tricky territory because it's a bit nuanced, because we know that exercise is one of the most important things for your health, and for graceful aging. But if you get it wrong, it can actually increase your risk for disease as you age. But if you get this part right, it'll be huge for your health, and to address any annoying symptoms or issues that you're battling that are related to inflammation, which is pretty much all health ailments. Be sure to listen to the first 10 episodes of this podcast as each is dedicated to a core tenet of my philosophies, and each reflects the most important concepts that I'm seeing in health, fitness and nutrition today. Also, if after you listen to this episode, you post a review below, you'll get free access to my brand new program called Strength Without Stress. It's a four week strength training plan with minimum recovery, so you get maximum strength without the stress of confusing or elaborate or overly intense workouts.

Simply rate and review this podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, then screenshot your review and come over to hollyperkins.com/review and send it to me, you'll get immediate free access to this awesome brand new program. So let's jump into today's episode. Boy, if I had $1 for every time a woman comes to me for coaching, killing herself in her workouts in order to become stronger or leaner or just more fit. But instead, she's confused because her body seems to be getting worse instead of better. If I had $1 for every time woof. I’d buy me a boat- if you know what I'm talking about. If you're crushing your workouts, but feel like your body is going in the wrong direction, and are also noticing unexpected or mysterious symptoms like allergies, skin issues, digestive issues, depression, anxiety, or even just deep fatigue.

This episode was made with you in mind, there's a really good chance that you're dealing with inflammation, more specifically silent systemic inflammation, and it's a real problem. In this episode, you'll learn that the very thing that's supposed to make you healthier exercise could actually be increasing your risk of chronic health issues. I know it sounds crazy, but stay with me. You'll learn some of the symptoms of problematic inflammation, and it's really sneaky tactics. You'll learn what age you should start paying attention because inflammation gets worse with each Earth Day. And of course, I'll give you some tips to get your workouts right so that you actually improve your body's ability to manage dangerous inflammation.

The whole goal of eating right and exercising is to feel better and to be better to protect your future from chronic ailments and disease to be healthy. becoming strong and lean and energized and fit is absolutely possible, provided you're following the right plan. If you're a woman over the age of 35, grab your notebook or download this episode because you don't want to miss a beat. What I'm about to share is super important because the wrong workouts can actually increase your risk of life threatening diseases and the right workouts will help you ride into the sunset in the body of your dreams. If you're new around here I want to share a bit about my personal story.

A handful of years ago, unbeknownst to me, I was being exposed to toxic mold in my apartment in Los Angeles. seemingly out of nowhere I started experiencing Symptoms of depression and anxiety. And while I had battled depression on and off throughout most of my life, anxiety was a new thing for me; it was just very much out of my character. But one day I just got walloped, literally, I was 44 or so at the time, and I was in phenomenal shape. And because of that, I refuse to believe that there was anything wrong with my physical health. Instead, I thought maybe I was struggling with something more mental or emotional, because while my symptoms were mental and emotional, after several years of trying everything to feel better, I finally found an incredible doctor who uncovered the real issue: mold.

And boy, I hope that you never have to deal with mold exposure because it is really bad. They say it's one of the most damaging threats to your immune system and can trigger all kinds of other health issues, as it did for me. Long story short, part of the issue was that my estrogen was beginning to decline. And what I didn't know at the time was that estrogen is a powerful anti-inflammatory, it's protective in nature. And when it declines, inflammation rises, as you reach a certain threshold. Inflammation then starts to cause a variety of symptoms, according to your genetic coding. In my experience, most women don't know how to spot the health issues that are related to inflammation or even caused by inflammation.

I believe that my health issues over the past few years would have been very different had I not lived in that apartment, which was the trigger, even in light of the inevitable decline in estrogen I've been experiencing since that time. If you're between the ages of 35 and 54, or so and are pre menopausal, you may not realize the degree that declining estrogen is impacting your body. So today, I want to share some really interesting concepts so that you can reduce any health issues that might be linked with a decline in estrogen, and therefore an increase in inflammation. Because whether you realize it or not, your estrogen is shifting.

And it's important to understand the extended implications. Now, today's episode is also for you if you're postmenopausal, because the conversation is going to touch upon many things related to your workout, your diet, and inflammation. And this applies for all of us, regardless of our life stage. First, I want to touch on a few things to set the stage and then I'm going to address some of the common misconceptions I see in my practice. Many experts agree that perimenopause can begin in your mid 30s, which is way younger than many people realize. And it can last for as long as 14 years I'm sure for some women, maybe even longer. Even if you feel young and fabulous right now, your estrogen is beginning to fluctuate in your 30s and this is the time to start paying attention to annoying health issues that could be related to this change in estrogen. A 2020 article linked below

in the Journal of Neuroinflammation states quote, emerging evidence is showing that perimenopause is pro inflammatory, and disrupts estrogen regulated neurological systems and goes on to say in general women's risk of stroke and cardiac arrest increases exponentially after the onset of menopause and quote, which really indicates the protective power of estrogen. In other words, estrogen is a powerful anti-inflammatory, and as it declines inflammation increases, numerous studies, almost too many to mention, show that as estrogen declines inflammation increases.

I've linked some of the studies below in the show notes if you want to check them out. To further compound this issue, research also shows that inflammation increases as a result of the aging process in general, and this is for both men and women. This could be why we see such a stark increase in diseases and women around and after menopause. For women we get a double whammy of inflammation. One is related to the loss of estrogen but then the other is related to aging in general. inflammation is often misunderstood. And I could dedicate a whole episode to this topic alone. Since I'm not a doctor, I'm going to keep this as simple as possible and more related to your diet and your exercise where I am an expert.

There are several different forms of inflammation. And today's conversation is focused specifically on systemic inflammation, the dangerous silent inflammation, and it's sneaky. And it's linked to many of our most worrisome diseases, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, osteoarthritis and depression, I could continue. But that's depressing enough as it is, while less worrisome, but equally problematic. Inflammation is also linked with allergies, anxiety, skin issues, constipation and food sensitivities. For the most part, you won't know your level of inflammation unless your doctor runs a diagnostic test, the most common being C reactive protein CRP.

Now, I say if you have any mysterious health complaints, like some of those that I mentioned, there's a good chance that you're battling inflammation. Again, this episode is not really a comprehensive look at inflammation. But instead, I want to bring to your attention the link between exercise and inflammation. So that one, you get your workouts right. So that too, you're teaching your body to better manage systemic inflammation, rather than compounding any existing inflammation that's coming from these other triggers. So the first thing to understand is that exercise is a powerful way to protect your health, as it trains your body to better manage the inflammation that comes from just being a human on Earth. The problem is when your workout programming isn't right, and it's actually contributing to more inflammation.

This is tricky because even the right workout causes inflammation. That's precisely how your body responds, recovers and becomes better. This is what we call tissue remodeling. It's the process by which you introduce stress through your workout to your tissues, ie your muscles, so that they rebuild. And inflammation is a required part of that process. And that's why at the top of the show, I said inflammation is actually a very good thing. We just need to keep tabs on it and manage the influences, and be on alert for any symptoms when your inflammation is starting to get high enough that it's contributing to either real health issues, or even just annoying health symptoms. The key is that you want only the inflammation that's necessary in order to improve the quality and or quantity of your muscle.

The problem is when your workouts are too hard, too long or too frequent. The key is to challenge your body just enough to improve your cardiovascular system and muscles, but not so much that you're adding to any systemic inflammation that's already at play. The very thing that's supposed to improve your health, i.e. exercise could actually be adding to that dangerous inflammation. Now, I don't want to sound alarmist really and truly, but could this be why we see a significant increase in stroke, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases in women after menopause. I'd rather you be on the lookout now, rather than on the receiving end of a worrisome health issue later. What I see in my practice is women both pre and post menopausal coming to me because they're working so hard and eating right, but yet their body isn't changing.

And it almost seems as if their body fat is increasing and they're getting more fatigued, instead of less or instead of more energized or more fit. So they interpret their results as though they're not working hard enough. And they end up doing more, they diet more and they work out more, only to find things getting worse. It doesn't make sense. Since, but when I probe deeper, I find that often they're also suffering from things like digestive issues, allergies, fatigue, or even mood changes. And so often, the problem is that they're simply doing too much, and therefore causing too much inflammation.

And it is this cumulative load that tips the scales to where they have these other health complaints. I realize this is tricky to self diagnose, and that's why I offer coaching programs. But my goal today is to offer this perspective so that you can do some self education or reach out to me if your issues are manageable, or reach out to a doctor if you're really suffering. The three things that you want to assess are one, the length of your workouts, if you're struggling with any of the chronic health issues that I've mentioned, or any of these mysterious things that you can't figure out, aim to keep all of your workouts to 60 minutes or less.

Number two, you want to assess the intensity of your workouts. If you're one to push yourself in your workouts, you want to scale back a bit. This applies to the overall intensity of strength workouts, cardio workouts, classes, or even the interest Set Intensity of strength exercises. This refers to how hard you're working rep by rep inside of a strength set. So for example, you might say, Oh, my strength workouts aren't that bad because I was never breathless or sweaty. But if in a given set, you're doing your job, and you're working hard inside of a set, and those reps are challenging, that's what we've referred to as the interest Set Intensity.

And if that's high, that applies here as well. And the third thing you want to assess is the frequency of your workouts, especially the hard ones. For women over 35. I generally recommend alternating your workouts, so that one day is challenging, and the following day is either recovery or it's an easier workout. You'll get into trouble if you're trying to crush more than two workouts in a row. In general, what I recommend is, let's say on Monday, when your energy is higher, you have a really good, solidly intense workout. But if that workout is intense, the next day should be even less intense.

And that's why I recommend that it might be your day off. Or if the intensity of that workout wasn't that tough. The next day could be a gentler workout, it's all relative to how much intensity you experience in the workout. The next mistake I see women making is compartmentalizing their health initiatives. So that workouts are in a separate and distinct category related to fitness or weight loss. Then in another compartment is health or medical. And this is where chronic ailments live, but you don't associate them to your fitness compartment. This is where things like heartburn or migraines, allergies, digestive issues, new onset anxiety, a pronounced loss of self confidence or mood disorders, bloating and just a general sense of feeling congested.

This is where they all live. And there is a tendency to think these symptoms aren't related to your workouts or your diet, which might be in that fitness compartment. And they might not be related to your diet or your workouts. But I do notice that when a client comes to me to improve her health or her body in general, and I discover that she's also fighting with any of these symptoms that I've mentioned today, and I then change her diet and her workouts. Those symptoms often lessen, or a lot of times they completely disappear. It's not that hard workouts and certain foods cause the symptoms. It's that there is a baseline of inflammation and these things push her over the edge.

And the research points to declining estrogen causing an increase in inflammation then the wrong workouts or the wrong foods compound the increasing inflammation, because don't forget there are a lot of things in your life that contribute to inflammation addition, it's not just diet. And obviously, it's not just exercise because everyone exercises differently. If this is out of your awareness and your inflammation level keeps rising, you'll eventually end up with some minor or major health issues. And we know from research that inflammation is linked with some very serious diseases. While I'm not directly advising your health here, I suggest you keep a Health Journal where you can track any symptoms each day and see if you can draw a correlation to diet or workouts, you might notice that you have worse symptoms the day after a big workout, or a day or two after eating commonly known inflammatory foods. It does take some self discovery, and that's why a Health Journal is super helpful.

Something to keep in mind that I see a ton is a sudden onset of food sensitivity, when you historically never had an issue with that specific food. A good example here is eggs and egg whites because I'm seeing an increased incidence of people who are intolerant to egg whites in particular, but obviously egg whites are part of eggs. Upon IgG testing, we'll find out that a client is highly sensitive. And she'll say, but I've never had an issue with eggs before. And I love them and I eat them every day and I have for years and years and years. This is a great example of how your body changes over time, especially as estrogen starts to decline. It's possible you've been able to eat a certain food every day for 60 years, but the body changes. And some would say that the foods we get exposed to most often are the ones we tend to develop sensitivities to. My suggestion here is that you use your health journal and see if you can link any foods or workouts to a flare up and symptoms.

The last mistake I see is being young enough that you don't link your struggles to a change in estrogen. The research shows that estrogen can begin to decline or fluctuate in your mid 30s. Again, I've linked research below if you want to dive in more. But if you're 35 the last thing on your mind as a potential influence is menopause. In fact, many of the minor but annoying symptoms for women start in their 30s. But we ignore it until it becomes debilitating. If you're over the age of 35 and have any symptoms that you don't like, even if you say oh, it's not that bad. I encourage you to find a doctor to help you dig deeper, then I can help you ensure that your diet and exercise habits support your optimal health and aren't adding to any increasing inflammation. If you're working hard in the gym and believe you're eating healthy, but feel like your body isn't going in the right direction.

The problem could be that your workout isn't working for you. And that's a very simple thing to change. The truth is, it's important to learn how to manage inflammation, because it will be something to consider as you get older. Exercise is a powerful way to improve how your body manages stress and inflammation. The more fit you are, the better you're able to handle any health issues that your body throws at you. This is what I mean when I say it's important to create the body that you need to keep up with a life that you love. As you're on the journey to improved physical resilience, it's helpful to know that harder workouts are not necessarily better. And some quote unquote healthy foods might not work great for your body. The key here is to pay attention and seek out the guidance of qualified professionals when any health symptoms become chronic, or detract from the quality of your life.

You deserve to feel great, and I promise it's possible for you too. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If so, scroll down or navigate to the holly Perkins health podcast homepage on Apple, Spotify or Amazon and be sure that you rate and review that way you can grab your screenshot come over to Holly perkins.com forward slash review or you can send it to me and you can get immediate free access to strength without stress and And be sure to watch for another brand new episode coming on Tuesday Have a great day stay strong my friend