Robert Urich said, “A healthy outside starts from the inside.” And Mark Halperin said, “Sufficient sleep, exercise, healthy food, friendship, and peace of mind are necessities, not luxuries.”
In today’s fast-paced world, many people take their health and well-being for granted. Some even deprive themselves of sufficient sleep due to a hectic lifestyle. It is important to remember that you are only as healthy as the weakest area of your life. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help you feel better about yourself and have the energy needed to tackle life’s challenges.
My guest today is a good friend of mine, Shawn Stevenson. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri St. Louis, where he studied Business, Biology, and Nutritional Science. He’s also the founder of Advanced Integrative Health Alliance, a company that provides wellness services for individuals and organizations worldwide.
In this episode, we talked about how our mental health is affected when we aren’t taking care of our bodies, why more than 60% of people have chronic inflammation, how sleep affects your brain when you have enough or have too little, the link between inflammation in the body and neuroinflammation, and so much more!
Our conversation was so powerful and there were so many interesting topics we talked about that we had to break this up into two parts. So make sure to check out part two coming out right after this one.
Who Is Shawn Stevenson?
Shawn Stevenson is the creator and host of The Model Health Show, which was featured as the #1 Fitness & Nutrition podcast in the United States, with millions of downloads each year. For the past few years, every week he’s been releasing a new “masterclass” episode on a broad range of health-related topics. He’s also an author of the international bestselling book, Sleep Smarter, which has been so powerful for me and so with many people around the world. His other book, Eat Smarter, talks about the connection between food and overall mental, cognitive, and physical health.
At the age of 20, Shawn was diagnosed with life-threatening degenerative disc disease, a condition considered by some medical experts as incurable. His spine was deteriorating rapidly, and his physician told him that he had the spine of an 80-year old man. Shawn had a hard time walking, and he was suffering from chronic pain, leading to hopelessness and depression.
He was fitted with a back brace, and his doctors advised him to get plenty of bed rest. However, none of them advised a lifestyle change — they considered his condition incurable. As a result, he gained over 40 pounds after two years, and things changed for the worse for him.
But a life-changing moment happened to Shawn one night while he was about to take his over-the-counter medications to help him sleep through the pain. A burst of happy memory flashbacks led him to decide to stop placing the responsibility of his health on his doctors, who didn’t believe that he could get any better anyway. Instead, he took charge of his health, put a plan together, and started making a lifestyle change that made a positive difference.
In the months after this decision, he was transformed. He lost about 20 pounds, and a scan on his spine showed significant improvements, while his herniated discs had retracted on their own. Since then, Shawn has become an advocate for others with health problems. His mission is to serve as many people as he can. So, after he graduated from college, he pursued a private practice as a coach and nutritionist, which eventually led him to various speaking engagements and teaching classes.
He also wrote books and launched podcasts about health to widen his impact on others. He inspires people through his life story, telling the world that the difference between hoping for something and actually deciding to achieve comes down to belief. He wants to tell as many people as he can that there’s hope. Even if doctors tell you that your health condition is incurable, and in the midst of chronic inflammation, a lifestyle change complemented with belief could lead to self-healing.
Why More Than 60% of People Have Chronic Inflammation
We are all born with a natural tendency to heal ourselves. When we have an injury or illness, our bodies produce inflammation in the affected area as a way of protecting us and fighting off infection. But when this process is overactive and prolonged, it can lead to chronic inflammation.
A study showed that nearly 60% of Americans had at least one chronic condition, and 42% had more than one. Likewise, 12% of adults had five or more chronic conditions. I’m curious about why more than 60% of people have chronic inflammation and what the root cause of this is.
“Inflammation is an underlying component of a myriad of different diseases. … If you look at the root word coming from Greek and Latin, [it] means, ‘to set on fire.’ And so, … it’s just like pain, swelling, bruising, burning, aching, those types of things. But … the majority of the inflammation that folks are experiencing, oftentimes, goes unnoticed.” – Shawn Stevenson
There are two major types of inflammation — acute and chronic. Acute inflammation occurs when there is an infection or a cut, and it typically lasts for about 3-5 days. Chronic inflammation can be caused by autoimmune disorders, prolonged exposure to toxins in the environment, or other causes, and can last for years.
“Inflammation is sending out a distress signal to different tissues to recruit and call in the immune system for support in defending against infections and repair. … Inflammation is actually not a bad thing. … We would never heal without inflammation. If we have an infection that would be deadly without inflammation. It’s an important part of our evolution in our health.” – Shawn Stevenson
Inflammation is a response mechanism in our body, and it shows up when there’s a trigger. So, every time you experience inflammation, there is an underlying condition in the body that causes the flare-up.
“We’ve got to look at what are the underlying components? What is creating the fire? What is throwing gasoline on the fire, as well? And so if we take one of the conditions, … right now, here in the United States, … about 242 million of our citizens are overweight or obese.” – Shawn Stevenson
The accessibility to unhealthy foods coupled with a sedentary lifestyle as a result of digital advancements like the internet, movie subscriptions, and mobile games have led many people in the United States into obesity. But what’s the correlation between obesity and inflammation?
How Obesity and Sleep Deprivation Causes Inflammation
There are studies linking obesity and inadequate sleep to inflammation. Although, not necessarily directly correlated.
“Our genes and … our DNA expects certain things to have healthy outcomes or healthy cell replication and healthy expression, and so we’ve got to look at what are the things our genes expect of us. Our genes expect us to move. For example, we’re the most sedentary culture in the history of humanity.” – Shawn Stevenson
If you’re having problems with obesity, then it’s more likely that there’s no balance in your diet and there is too much sugar in your daily consumption. Sugar causes inflammation in the body, which can lead to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and other health issues. So, obesity can be a probable underlying condition leading to inflammation.
“Also, our genes expect us to get adequate sleep. And … the thing is, so many wonderful, absolutely amazing things take place during sleep, … — even the reduction of inflammation. … We have microglial cells in our brain, which are kind of the brain’s immune system, and it’s primarily active when we’re sleeping to reduce inflammation, to clean out metabolic wastes, and things of the like.” – Shawn Stevenson
Sleep deprivation is a major problem in the United States, with one-third of American adults not getting enough sleep regularly. One study showed that adults with less than 7 hours of sleep were more likely to report ten chronic health conditions compared to those who got enough sleep. It’s important to have sufficient sleep regularly!
