If you’ve ever sprained your ankle, you know that pain and inflammation can sometimes be good things—they signal you to rest your injured limb while your body brings increased circulation and heat to fight off injury and infection until healing sets in.
But too much of a good thing can become an ongoing health problem. Inflammation is your body’s natural response to injury and it’s controlled by your immune system. When this process gets out of control, it can stimulate disease, including heart disease.
For example, plaque builds up in our arteries because of high levels of fat (lipids) in our body. At the same time, the presence of inflammation stiffens our arterial walls, making the plaque build-up more fragile and likely to break off. When this happens, plaque can travel to other parts of our cardiovascular system, causing heart attacks and strokes. So, understanding how inflammation is measured, and how you can put current research into practice to control it through seven simple steps, is important.
Measuring inflammation
Researchers have identified a chemical substance in our blood known as C-reactive protein (CRP) that helps measure whether inflammation is present. Other proteins have also been studied, but CRP is one of the least expensive and easiest chemicals to measure. But it’s not a diagnostic test for heart disease.
What CRP can do is give experts the ability to predict your risk for heart disease and other diseases, when it's part of an overall assessment of your total health risks. CRP typically exists in our bodies at trace levels but increases sharply when trauma, infection, stroke and chronic illness (such as rheumatoid arthritis and heart disease) are present, say researchers at University College London, who are striving to develop a drug to reduce CRP levels in the bloodstream. In fact, CRP increases in the face of almost all diseases. CRP rises dramatically after a heart attack, and people with persistently high levels of CRP suffer the greatest risk of dying during heart attacks.
If you’re at risk for heart disease, you may be a candidate for CRP screening. The American Heart Association recommends regular CRP screening for anyone with moderately elevated risks for heart disease, such as a combination of high cholesterol, triglycerides or high blood pressure, whether you smoke or if you have diabetes, as a way to predict risk for a first-time heart attack or stroke.
CRP screening shouldn’t be used as the only assessment for heart disease risk, says the
Archives of Internal Medicine, which reported that CRP measurement alone, without taking other risk factors into account, has little value in predicting heart attacks.
Are you relatively healthy but have a brother or sister who has had a heart attack? CRP can also help predict risk in people with a strong family history of heart disease who have no personal risk factors. If you have a brother or sister who has had a heart attack, your personal risk is increased by as much as four times; if you have a parent who has had a heart attack, your risk is increased by one and a half times. CRP screening helps put that risk into perspective based on your own health as well. If you’ve already been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, a high CRP level means you’re more likely to have a subsequent heart attack or stroke.
Understand your risk
Think you’re not at risk for heart disease just because you’re a woman? Think again—heart disease is the #1 killer of women, although 80% of heart disease is entirely preventable.
As you age and go through menopause, your heart disease risk factors change, so it’s important to start young and work with your healthcare provider to evaluate and minimize your risks as you age. When you know your risks, you can modify certain lifestyle factors—like smoking or being overweight—so you can help reduce those risks now and in the future.
Knowing your risk also helps your healthcare provider choose what medications may help to reduce your heart disease risks further and when to recommend or prescribe these drugs. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can decrease CRP levels. Statins, a group of drugs that lower cholesterol and other lipid levels, can also decrease CRP. Medicines that treat elevated blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and the thyroid gland may also be needed and can be very useful in decreasing your risk for developing heart disease or exacerbating existing heart disease.
Seven steps to control inflammation
Act on these seven specific ways to control inflammation in your body and help slow down or turn off the disease process, including heart disease.
1. Don’t Smoke
And don’t use tobacco in any form. CRP levels in smokers remain elevated for at least five years after quitting. Smoking causes heart disease and cancer. Your health care provider has medications to help you beat nicotine addiction—begin today to quit and lower those levels.
2. Maintain a Healthy Weight
Fat cells produce CRP in the lab, and obese people have higher CRP levels than their normal-weight peers. Even losing 10% of your total body weight decreases your risk for heart disease by improving your blood pressure and decreasing stress on your heart. Ask your healthcare provider for referrals for nutritional counseling, diet, exercise and medications to help curb cravings while you lose weight—these may even be covered by your insurance.
3. Exercise
Get active and stay active. Exercise reduces high levels of CRP, promotes weight loss, lowers blood pressure and helps control blood sugar. For maximum benefits, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day most days of the week.
4. Eat Well
High-fiber diets that are low in refined carbohydrates and saturated and trans fats and high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains are associated with lower CRP levels and improved blood pressure. High CRP levels can make it more difficult to lower cholesterol levels through diet, but a high-fiber diet may help.
5. Go to Bed
Get sufficient, healthy sleep—that means at least eight hours a night, uninterrupted if possible. A chronic lack of sleep may lead to higher CRP levels in people who fail to get enough sleep or who have sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, say researchers in the journal Circulation. Lack of sleep has also been implicated in heart disease, so if you’re not getting the full 40 winks each night, talk with your healthcare provider about medications and other strategies to help improve the quality and length of your sleep.
6. Brush and Floss
“If it’s in your mouth, it’s in your heart.” Emerging evidence is showing that the build-up of plaque and bacteria in your mouth is evidence of the same in your heart and arteries. Brush and floss regularly, particularly after eating and at least upon waking and before bedtime. One study has shown that deep cleaning procedures along with the use of an antibiotic gel on your gums significantly decreased CRP.
7. Be Happy
Not only does stress set off a host of chemical reactions in your body, it can also elevate CRP levels. If you suffer from depression, seek treatment. Work toward balance in your life, including reducing stress.
Experiencing inflammation
Cardiovascular: inflammation contributes to hardening of your arteries (atherosclerosis), increasing your risk for heart attack and stroke.
Nervous: elevated levels of stress-related proteins can lead to depression.
Endocrine: inflammation is a factor in metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity, all of which contribute to ongoing disease in the body.
Immune: autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are inflammatory in nature, and they degrade your nerves and joints over time.
Get the facts
