Episode 282: Gut Health, Inflammation, and Chronic Pain

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar:

You wake up in pain—slowly working your way out of bed, stretching and wincing as you go. Before you even brush your teeth, you’re popping an ibuprofen, hoping it'll get you through the day.

I get it. When you’re hurting, you want relief fast. And NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil and Aleve) can seem like the easiest fix.

But here’s the problem: that little pill you’re reaching for each day might actually be keeping you stuck in a cycle of pain and inflammation long term. I know that sounds backwards, so let’s dig in.

NSAIDs: Quick Fix, Long-Term Fallout

Yes, NSAIDs reduce inflammation. That’s their job. But here’s what most people don’t realize: inflammation isn’t always the villain—it’s also your body’s healing response.

Think of inflammation like a forest ranger using a controlled fire to clear out the dead brush so new life can grow. Your body uses inflammation the same way—sending blood flow, nutrients, and immune support to injured areas to clear out the damage and kickstart repair.

But what happens if we keep dousing that fire before it’s done its job?

We block healing. We delay recovery. And ironically, we often end up in more pain over time.

And that’s not even the worst part…

The Gut-Punch You Didn’t See Coming

NSAIDs don’t just mess with your inflammation pathways—they're especially problematic for your gut. And if you've been hanging around here for more than five minutes, you know your gut is the foundation of literally everything in your body—from your hormones to your mood to your metabolism to yes, your joint health.

Here’s how NSAIDs sabotage your system:

• They weaken the protective mucus lining in your gut and stomach, making you more vulnerable to ulcers, leaky gut, and even inflammatory bowel disease.

• They alter your microbiome, tipping the scales toward harmful bacteria.

• They can increase acid reflux by messing with the valve that keeps stomach acid away from your esophagus.

So yeah, they might help your lower back today… but they could be fueling the root causes of your pain tomorrow.

Why Inflammation Isn’t the Enemy and Gut Healing Is Your Secret Weapon

You might think the goal is to get rid of inflammation altogether. But here’s the thing: we need a little inflammation to heal. What we don’t need is chronic, out-of-control, body-on-fire inflammation.

That’s where the gut comes in.

If your gut is compromised, your inflammation will be too. And suddenly you’re stuck in a vicious cycle:

Pain → NSAID → Gut damage → More inflammation → More pain → More NSAIDs.

Let’s break that down…

6 Ways Your Gut is Controlling How You Heal

1. Leaky Gut + Food Sensitivities

Picture your gut lining like a coffee filter. The coffee (aka nutrients) should pass through. The grounds (aka toxins, bacteria, and undigested food) should not.

But when you’re exposed to things like gluten, sugar, dairy, processed seed oils, and environmental toxins, that filter wears down and starts getting holes in it. Now the "grounds" are leaking into your bloodstream, triggering your immune system and stoking inflammation everywhere—including your joints. 

When leaky gut becomes chronic, it can drive up the release of lipopolysaccharides and stimulate the release of inflammatory cytokines which can cause tissue damage. And it can even lead to autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

2. Poor Nutrient Absorption

You’ve probably heard me say it before: you aren’t just what you eat—you’re what you absorb.

If your gut is a mess, you’re not absorbing key nutrients that help reduce inflammation and rebuild tissue like protein, vitamin C, omega-3s, vitamin D, you name it.

This malabsorption can occur when you don't have enough stomach acid to break down protein (looking at you ppi's), it can happen when you don't produce enough enzymes to properly digest food and its nutrients, and it can happen because of a damaged gut lining and reduced beneficial bacteria. 

3. Weight and Inflammation

This isn’t about body shaming—it’s about body mechanics. Extra weight adds stress to your joints (just a 10 pound weight gain can potentially add 30-40 pounds of force to the knee joints), and visceral fat (the kind around your organs) pumps out inflammatory molecules like a factory. 

This drives us into another vicious cycle where excess weight drives up inflammation and inflammation drives up excess weight

And what controls your weight more than willpower? Your gut. 

Your gut not only regulates hunger and satiety hormones (your gut produces GLP-1 fyi), it plays a major role in determining your metabolism. 

4. Stress

Stress and gut health are like opposite ends of a seesaw — when stress goes up, gut health goes down. And when gut health declines, stress rises. 

You’ve probably heard of fight or flight — it’s your body’s stress response, where cortisol spikes to help you survive a threat. On the flip side, there's rest and digest — the calm state where your gut can actually heal and function properly.

Let’s focus on fight or flight for a moment…

Your body doesn’t differentiate between types of stress — whether it’s mental, physical, internal (like inflammation), or external (like a tight deadline). Whatever the stressor, the response is the same: release cortisol.

Cortisol’s job is to fuel you with energy by breaking down your own tissue to release stored glucose. This can lead to wear and tear on your muscles, joints, and even your gut lining.

In small bursts, this response is life-saving. But when cortisol stays high long-term, it causes chronic inflammation, tissue damage, and slows healing.

5. Sleep

You do your best healing while you sleep. And your gut plays a big role in melatonin production. Poor gut health = crappy sleep = slower healing.

6. Mindset + Mood

About 80-90% of your serotonin (your “feel good” neurotransmitter) is produced in the gut. So if your gut is off, your mood takes a hit too potentially leading to anxiety, depression, and a hopeless mindset.

And if you'll remember from my interview with Dr. Hogan, optimism is a vital part of any healing journey. 

Real Talk: Healing Starts With What You Eat

Want to get a better handle on your pain and inflammation? Start with what’s on your plate.

Try this mini gut check worksheet:

Write down everything you ate yesterday, then…

• Circle all sources of gluten (bread, pasta, crackers, bagels, fried food, soy sauce, beer)
  👉 Even if you don’t feel sensitive to gluten, it increases zonulin—a protein that opens up the tight junctions in your gut lining = leaky gut.

• Circle all sources of dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter - not eggs)
  👉 Contains casein, which overstimulates your nerves and ramps up pain signals.

• Circle all forms of sugar (besides fruit) and alcohol (desserts, sweet coffee drinks, etc.)
  👉 Spikes blood sugar, feeds bad bacteria, and increases oxidative stress (aka cell damage).

• Count your plant foods (veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds)
  👉 Aim for 30 different plants per week and 5-6 fist-size servings a day to support a thriving microbiome.

Bottom Line

If you want to feel better for good, we have to stop slapping temporary band-aids on chronic problems. That daily ibuprofen habit may be numbing your pain now, but it’s also sabotaging the systems your body needs to actually heal.

Let’s work on building a foundation where you don’t need a pill to get through the day. Because I promise, you weren’t meant to live like this.

Want help healing your gut and ditching chronic pain from the inside out? Click here to book a free consultation. 

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