What Is Chronic Inflammation?
Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of chronic health conditions, whether it’s a neurodevelopmental disorder like autism or ADHD, an autoimmune disorder, a mood disorder, diabetes, allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal disorder, heart disease or other condition. Think of all of the chronic health conditions you know of that end in “-itis”, which means “inflammation of”.
Acute inflammation is seen in symptoms such as pain, itching, burning, redness or swelling. In the case of allergies, these would be seen with symptoms of anaphylaxis, which are IgE mediated. This is the body’s way of protecting against pathogens.
The problem is when inflammation becomes chronic. This type of immune dysregulation is typically mediated with IgA or IgG antibodies, meaning that the symptoms are different and can sometimes take two to three days to appear.
Symptoms of Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation shows up in a variety of symptoms such as:
- Fatigue
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Focus, concentration and cognition problems
- Headaches
- Stomach aches or other gastrointestinal issues
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Psoriasis
- Eczema
- Skin irritations
- Skin rashes
- Elevated anxiety or depression
- Moods swings
- Meltdowns or irritability
- Hyperactivity
- Non-compliant behaviors
- Aggression
- Sleep problems
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
Causes of Chronic Inflammation
Anything that causes stress on an ongoing basis can cause chronic inflammation; common causes are:
- High blood sugar
- Reactive hypoglycemia
- Consumption of inflammatory foods such as vegetable oils and processed foods
- Excess bodily fat
- Toxicity from environmental toxins such as heavy metals
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Unintegrated (retained) primitive reflexes
- Poor lighting
- EMFs
- Chronic stress
- Trauma
- Gut dysbiosis
- Immune dysregulation
- Pathogenic infections such as those seen in PANS/PANDAS and Lyme disease
- Faulty sensory issues such as vision processing and/or auditory processing
- Hidden food sensitivities and intolerances
- Other factors that contribute to the total load of stressors
Testing for Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is typically not tested for by most mainstream healthcare practitioners. Here are some more-common tests you can ask your practitioner to order for you; if your practitioner won’t, we recommend working with a functional or integrative practitioner that will.
- CRP (C Reactive Protein)
- HbA1C (Hemoglobin A1C)
- Fasting insulin
- Serum ferritin
- Homocysteine
In addition, fasting glucose levels above 85, and especially those above 100 are more indicative of high inflammation, as glucose (sugar) is highly inflammatory. The HbA1C test mentioned above is an average of blood glucose over a three-month period. You have the ability to check these levels at home on a daily basis with a home glucose monitor that you can get at a local pharmacy or online.
For more information on these lab markers and more, we recommend visiting this page from Dr. David Jockers on inflammatory lab markers and their optimal levels.
Lowering Chronic Inflammation
One of the best ways to lower inflammation is to implement an elimination diet to check for hidden food sensitivities and intolerances, which are a very common cause of chronic inflammation.
By removing common inflammatory foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, eggs and soy for a week and then reintroducing them one a time every few days while keeping a food diary that tracks any of the symptoms listed above, you’ll better be able to understand what’s driving chronic symptoms. Many people are able to keep symptoms at bay simply by avoiding these inflammatory foods.
For more ideas on lowering chronic inflammation, be sure to visit our page on how to reduce inflammation.
About Maria Rickert Hong CHHC
Maria Rickert Hong is a Co-Founder of, and the Education and Media Director for, Documenting Hope.
She is a former sell-side Wall Street equity research analyst who covered the oil services sector at Salomon Smith Barney and Lehman Brothers under Institutional Investor #1 ranked analysts.
Later, she covered the gaming, lodging & leisure sector at Jefferies & Co. and Calyon Securities. She quit working on Wall Street when her first son was born.
Prior to working on Wall Street, she was a marketing specialist for Halliburton in New Orleans, where she also received her MBA in Finance & Strategy from Tulane University.
She is the author of the bestselling book Almost Autism: Recovering Children from Sensory Processing Disorder and the co-author of Brain Under Attack: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers of Children with PANS, PANDAS, and Autoimmune Encephalitis. She is a co-author of Reversal of Autism Symptoms among Dizygotic Twins through a Personalized Lifestyle and Environmental Modification Approach: A Case Report and Review of the Literature, J. Pers. Med. 2024, 14(6), 641.
Maria is also a Certified Holistic Health Counselor. Her work can be found on DocumentingHope.com, Healing.DocumentingHope.com, Conference.DocumentingHope.com and MariaRickertHong.com
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Resources
Videos
Greenburg, Julie.OAT 101: Fundamentals of the Organic Acids Test. Mosaic Diagnostics. 5 Oct 2023.
Woeller, Kurt. Clostridia Bacteria, Autism, and the Organic Acids Test (OAT). Mosaic Diagnostics. 18 Jan 2024.
Woeller, Kurt. The Organic Acid Test (OAT) & Autism: A Scientific Breakthrough in Care with Kurt Woeller, DO. Mosaic Diagnostics. 10 Mar 2025.
Websites
Organic Acids Test. Mosaic Diagnostics.
