The Beth Goodrham Podcast - Lifestyle & Health for Women

Inflammation: The Drama Queen Behind Your Mid-Life Aches, Fatigue & Brain Fog (& How To Fix It)

• Beth Goodrham

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Feeling puffy, achy, tired, or just off? These could be signs of inflammation in women. In this episode, I explain what inflammation is, why it increases in midlife, and practical ways to reduce it.

Learn how to spot inflammation through common symptoms like:

  • Stiff or achy joints
  • Bloating and puffiness
  • Brain fog or fatigue
  • Mood changes
  • Poor sleep

Reduce inflammation naturally with simple steps:

  • Eat anti-inflammatory foods like berries, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, oily fish, turmeric, and ginger
  • Manage stress with journaling, deep breathing, short walks, or gentle yoga
  • Prioritize sleep and consistent routines
  • Move consistently with gentle exercise and stretching
  • Limit processed foods, sugar, trans fats, and alcohol
  • Reduce exposure to toxins, use natural products, filter water, and spend time in nature

Taking small, consistent steps can improve energy, mood, sleep, recovery, and overall comfort in your body.

Resources and guides mentioned in this episode:

DM me on Instagram at @BethGoodrham to share your takeaways or the small changes you’re making.


Hello, lovely people and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today I want to start with a question. Have you ever woken up feeling puffy, achy, tired, or just off? Maybe your rings feel tight, your brain feels foggy, or your joints ache before your first cup of tea. Here's the thing. What if I told you these little daily annoyances could actually be linked to inflammation? And that by understanding it, you could feel more energetic, think more clearly, sleep better, enjoy less bloating, recover faster, and just generally feel lighter and more comfortable in your own body. Well, that's exactly what we're talking about today. What inflammation is, why it matters in midlife, how it shows up, and most importantly, what you can do to reduce it and reclaim your vitality. I am so pleased that you are here today. If it's the first time you've joined me, then welcome to the podcast. I hope that you enjoyed the episode. Today's episode is all about giving you clarity and practical tools. Nothing overwhelming. We have enough of that in life already. It's just really understandable, friendly. Guidance. By the end of this episode, you will know what inflammation is, why it's important for us to understand it, how it shows up in your body, what you can do to reduce it, and the benefits you'll experience when you do so. If you've ever wondered why your body doesn't feel like it used to, I think that's quite common for all of us. Or why fatigue, bloating, or achy joints seem to pop up out of nowhere. You are in the right place. So let's start at the very beginning. Inflammation is a word that gets tossed around a lot in wellness circles. We hear about it all the time, whether that's by reading magazine articles, listening to the radio, or watching something on social media, but what does it actually mean? I like to think of inflammation as your body's messenger system. When something's off, it sends signals like little warning lights on your dashboard, you know, like on your car when it needs to go for a service or it needs an oil change, or there's something that needs sorting out. You get little lights on your dashboard. Well, it's like that. The problem isn't the signal, it's when the signal stays on for too long. Like for example, when you don't take your car to get it serviced or you don't change the oil, and then we can expect a little bit of trouble. So that's when inflammation stops being helpful and starts to quietly cause trouble when that signal stays on for too long. So here's an example. If you cut your finger. Your body immediately sends immune cells to protect the area, fight off germs, and repair the tissue, and that's all brilliant. That's acute inflammation. It's short term, it's helpful, and in some cases it's potentially lifesaving. Now imagine that signal never switches off. Your immune system stays activated all the time. Even when there's no cut or infection, it's like it's gone into overdrive, and that's chronic inflammation, the kind that can slowly affect your joints, gut, brain, hormones, and even your mood. Now, I'm not wanting to paint a miserable picture here because there are easy steps we can take to change it, but that in essence is what inflammation is. And the big question is, why does this happen in midlife, the same as lots of other things. Well, surprise, surprise. Hormones play a huge role, particularly, you know what I'm gonna say? Estrogen. Estrogen naturally has anti-inflammatory effects. So when levels fluctuate or decline, your body becomes more sensitive. Combine that with stress, sleep issues, and diet and chronic inflammation can become a real problem. So the first takeaway is this, inflammation is not your enemy. It's a signal, and once we learn to read it, we can respond. So let's make this real. I want you to hear what inflammation actually feels like, because sometimes it's subtle, but knowing this and understanding it makes it easier to deal with. I like to think of it as starting the process of joining the dots. So think about these experiences. We've all been there. We wake up in the morning and our joints feel stiff, like they need a little oiling before you can move. You know when you get outta bed and tentatively put your feet on the floor and you know that when you stand up and take the first step, something might hurt a little bit, like a little bit of an Achilles pull or a little pain in the knee. Or a little bit of something in the hip, so other experiences, your belly feels bloated even when you didn't overeat. I swear I could do an entire podcast episode on the relationship between the size of a woman's stomach and how she feels in herself. It is such a complicated relationship, but yes, your belly feels bloated even when you didn't overeat. And that can just ruin the rest of your day because your clothes feel tight, everything feels off. It's just a horrible place to be. Okay, moving on. So your brain feels foggy and slow and it's only 10:00 AM or 6:30 AM in my case. You get headaches or even migraines that seem to come out of nowhere. Your brain feels foggy and slow and it's only nine o'clock in the morning. You get headaches or even migraines that just seem to come out of nowhere. You are exhausted even after a good night's sleep. How often do we hear people say this, your mood is off, or you feel more irritable than usual. These are all signs that your body may be experiencing low grade chronic inflammation. And here's the thing, many women assume it is just midlife or getting older when actually your body is trying to tell you something really important. Your body communicates through symptoms. This isn't a malfunction, it's a messaging system. And if we pay attention to it, we can start to understand it and decode it. So let's take a look at what causes inflammation in the first place. Why does it even show up? What are the triggers that are setting off these symptoms that we are feeling in our bodies? So there's hormonal changes, fluctuating estrogen increases sensitivity. Does our diet, processed foods, sugar, trans fat, alcohol can all cause inflammation. There's stress, chronic stress spikes, cortisol, sleep deprivation increases, inflammatory markers and movement issues both under and over. Exercising can contribute as well as environmental factors such as toxins, chemicals, and pollution. So if we think of inflammation as a snowball, one small factor might not cause much, but over time all these little triggers accumulate and suddenly it feels like your body is constantly on fire. Now that we've taken a look at what triggers inflammation, we can go through each cause and what we can do about it, because it's great having a list of what causes problems. But what we really want to know is what small, little actionable daily steps we can take to get things back on track. So dealing first with hormonal changes, estrogen helps to keep inflammation in check, so when levels fluctuate, your body reacts more. The practical steps that we can take are to focus on lifestyle habits that support hormonal balance, such as regular movement, nutrient dense foods, and stress management. We can include gentle phytoestrogen sources if appropriate, like flaxseed or soil alternatives. We can look to hormone replacement therapy on the advice of our doctors because that may make a difference. And what we can also do is track our symptoms to see if we can see any patterns emerging ourselves. There's a reason that people give up alcohol in midlife, and one of them might be something to do with inflammation, even if they don't recognize that at the time. If you're at the stage in life that whenever you've had a drink, you wake up the next day and you feel more bloated, your stomach doesn't work as well, you feel more tired, you feel more grumpy, you know, that can be a sign of inflammation in your body. So just noticing how different foods and how different lifestyle events make you react will help you to understand what tweaks you might need to make to counteract them. When it comes to diet, we all know the advice and we all know what we should be doing, but processed foods, trans fats, sugar and alcohol, all fuel inflammation. The practical steps that we can take are to eat anti-inflammatory foods. There's great lists of these on the internet. I've also got a guide myself, which I will link to in the show notes. Anti-inflammatory foods include berries, so your classic raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, leafy greens. The best ones are things like spinach and kale. Lots of nuts. Lots of seeds, oily fish, olive oil, turmeric, and ginger. And you can of course take turmeric as a supplement and ginger as well. The first time I came across anybody taking turmeric was some friends of ours had Labradors, and they are known to have. Achy joints and they'd got hip issues. So they used to keep turmeric in their freezer and give it to the dogs, and they said it made a massive difference. So there are these things available that you might want to try out having done some research. Other practical steps when it comes to diet are reducing processed snacks, fried foods, sugary drinks, and again, excess alcohol. It pops up a lot, doesn't it? Which is such a shame in some ways'cause a nice glass of something is a lovely way to round off the day and to hydrate consistently. Water just of itself helps to manage inflammation and if there's one thing. Most of us could probably do a little bit better. I know for sure I could. That is drink more water. Both of my girls walk around with those enormous. Water cups or hydro flasks or whatever they're called. Honestly, I swear I could cold dip in one of those is so huge. But still do I manage? No. So even if all you take away from this podcast episode is to drink more water, hopefully you will take more than that. That would be a start. Now looking at stress. Chronic stress triggers cortisol, which ramps up inflammation over time. We all know that at this stage of life, we're meant to be doing things that reduce our cortisol levels, which is why we're advised to work out differently. Live differently, take things more slowly. So short, daily stress busting habits of just three to five minutes of deep breathing, journaling, a walk, gentle yoga will all help to lower cortisol. Another thing that we can do is to set boundaries and delegate when possible, because saying no is anti-inflammatory. Although I have to say that setting boundaries and saying no can actually create more stress initially until you've established a bit of a pattern and you get more comfortable doing it. So it might be pushing through that barrier. And quite often as women, we'll just say, do you know what? I'll do that myself. But the time I've explained what needs to be done. How it needs to be done, so on and so forth. It's easier just to do it myself. So I think we might almost have to go through that stage of creating a little bit more stress for ourselves in the short term so that we benefit in the long term. And then mindfulness or meditation apps, they can help even two to three minutes a day. So it's just a case of how can we build into our day mindful, practical steps, which will reduce cortisol? And whilst we're talking about cortisol, I had this conversation with my mum the other day and she was saying that when she wakes up in the morning, that's when everything starts worrying around in her brain. It is not at nighttime. She can get to sleep, but it's when she wakes up in the morning. And I remember doing some research for one of my Sunday Love letters straight from the heart, which some of you may know because I used to write them every week, but I just couldn't work out why I felt so stressed in the mornings when I woke up, almost before I'd even opened my eyes, something would kick off. Things would start going around in my head, and that was all to do with cortisol rising first thing in the morning because its job is to get you going, is to get you out of your slumber. It's to get you activated and to get you moving to start the day. Which is great because it means we don't stay in bed all day. But the downside of it is that it can start making our brains too overactive first thing in the morning. So if you've ever felt that early morning anxiety is probably the cortisol at play. And just know that once you are up, and I've figured that the best thing to do is just to get up and to get on with the things that are going around in my brain or distract myself by doing something mindful, that things will then start to calm down. So that's just a little aside about cortisol Now let's take a look at sleep deprivation. This is another issue that I mentioned earlier. But even one bad night of sleep can spike inflammation. Now, for any of you who are listening who don't sleep well, I don't want you to panic whoever we are, there's always going to be something about our life, which will create a little bit more inflammation than other factors. But if we can control those other factors, then we can kind of mitigate against the ones that are being a bit picky. So for those of you who don't sleep well, you can obviously counteract this through your diet and exercise and hormones and so on and so forth. But practical steps to take are to prioritize seven to eight hours of quality sleep a night if you need them. Some people don't. Some people can survive on way less than that. Some people need way more than that. One good habit to get into though is being consistent, keeping consistent sleep and awake times, even on weekends, even at holidays, just so that we get into those regular patterns and regular rhythms. Now, of course, we all know about making our bedroom a lovely environment in which to go to sleep, having it as dark as possible, whether that's through blackout blinds or curtains, whether that's through wearing a sleep mask, screen free time in the bedroom. I'm not going to lecture anyone on what they should do, but I think we all know that if we are looking at our screens up until the point at which we try and go to sleep, then either we don't go to sleep as quickly or our sleep is a little bit more disturbed and doing anything else we can in our bedroom to support better rest. Whether that's the kind of bedding that you use. Perhaps you prefer a hundred percent cotton. Perhaps you prefer silk, whether it's the kind of pillows you use, the nightwear that you use, the temperature that you set in the bedroom, whether you use a pillow spray, whether you take supplements, all of those things that we know about to support a good night's sleep and all the pre-B bedtime rituals as well, such as calming tea, stretching, doing in yoga, deep breathing. An evening routine in some ways is probably just as important or even more important as a morning routine because if we get great sleep, then the world is a much easier place to navigate. Now let's take a look at movement issues. Too little or too much exercise can increase inflammation. So again, it's finding that sweet spot. Isn't life always about a balance and I think particularly a midlife, there are even more things that we have to start to try and balance than we are used to. Practical steps can involve moderate consistent movement like walking, swimming, pilates, yoga, or light strength training. Maybe you've got a fitness tracker, I dunno where the 10,000 steps a day idea came from. I think it's been discussed. People have said it is not a great metric to go by, but at least it is something. It's something to aim for and it's something to try and be consistent with. I've also started using MyFitness Tracker when I'm swimming. I didn't really realize that I could do that. I was just interested to see what it recorded. And then things like Pilates and yoga offer so many benefits in terms of strength training and flexibility and mindfulness. So there's so many options out there of different types of exercise that we can try. The important thing is to prioritize consistency over intensity, and this is something that I've banged on about a lot. I have this discussion with my children from time to time and I try and explain to them, particularly when it comes to exercise, that it is not an all or nothing mentality. There's no point going to the gym four times a week for three months and then not going for the next six months. It's better just to go once a week or twice a week. But to be able to do it consistently and something that I think really helps and is quite important, is to look at not necessarily doing things over a seven day period, but over a 10 day period. Because the month can be broken down into three lots of 10 days instead of four, lots of seven days. Obviously some months are longer than others and the math doesn't quite add up, but you know the point I'm making. It's way easier to get your four gym sessions or three gym sessions in over 10 days. Than it is over seven, not achieve them. Feel like you've failed and stopped going. It's a great way actually, just to relieve a little bit of pressure, not only when it comes to exercise, but to anything else that you're doing in life. Looking at things over a 10 day period is something that I think we've really missed out on. There's probably a whole book about it, or could be a whole book about it, but three lots of 10 days. Way more manageable. Definitely time to have a few days off. Definitely time in there to have a duvet day. Definitely time in there to be distracted by whoever else may need you in the family or in life, and to still get the things done that you want to get done. And really importantly, specifically at our age, but specifically when it comes to reducing inflammation, adding mobility and stretching sessions to reduce stiffness and joint stress is super important. It's something that I started doing last year. I go to an outdoor yoga class on a Sunday morning all year round. Come rain, come shine, come snow, come hail, come, wind come, whatever. We're out there. It is amazing how often it doesn't rain at nine o'clock on a Sunday morning and how good the weather actually is at nine o'clock on a Sunday morning. And I found that having that specific hour, not only for the stretching, but also for the mindfulness, has been brilliant for me, being outside looking at the trees. There were so many birds out there yesterday. It was amazing. So that's something else to build into your routine. And now we're going to move on and look at environmental factors and why they matter. So, toxins, chemicals, and pollution all contribute to inflammation. Now, this is something that I first became aware of. Probably in the early two thousands when I read a book by Patrick Holford. He was probably one of the first pioneers when it came to this, and he was very anti using cling film to store anything in, or the worst one is heating microwaveable food in the plastic dishes. He was very much about storing things in glass and using tinfoil, although I know it's not environmentally great. But the toxins that are around us in the air that leach into our bodies, through the water, through what we eat through, even what we put on them is incredible and has a really big impact. I think we're probably only just scratching the surface of it and it can have a huge impact. So practical steps might look like using natural cleaning products, which I'm sure a lot of you do already, or fragrance free items and getting a water filter if necessary. Now, years and years and years ago, again, going back to the early two thousands, we had a water filter and then we stopped using it. But more recently, we thought about bringing it back. And the reason for that is I had a soda stream for my birthday and I make sparkling water. And when we take the lid off. It really smells of chlorine now, I'm not sure whether having a water filter will make any difference, but it's definitely brought it to the forefront of my mind to think, Hmm, I'm not quite sure that I'm too happy about this. What can we do about it? So those are some practical steps that you can take to reduce exposure to toxins and chemicals. The other thing we have to think about are the creams that we put on our bodies, the makeup we put on our bodies, shampoo candles. They can give off lots of toxins. There's a really good app if you haven't come across it already called Yucca as in the plant. And what you can do is scan products directly from the shelves, whether that's conditioners, shampoo, makeup, moisturizers, and it will give you a score out of a hundred as to how good that product is in terms of the chemicals that it has in it. And then at the bottom it will offer alternatives. And quite often these are less expensive than the product that you may have been using already. So now whenever I'm out in boots with my daughter and she's like, mom, I need to get some more moisturizer, I say, okay, but we're gonna put it through the app first. And we scanned the simple moisturizer that she's always used. And you would think that simple is really good. It got zero out of a hundred zero. It was so bad it didn't score any positive points at all. But then when we scrolled down, we could see the options that the Alternatives and Biome was one, and I think Sarah V was one. So we swapped her simple moisturizer out. We've also done it with the shampoo she uses. We've done it with conditioners gradually as we're buying new products or updating our products, we are scanning them and just making sure that we are making the best choices that we can. So I'm not saying for one minute, just throw everything out in one go, because then there's the issue that that is still got to go somewhere. Whether it goes to landfill, whether it ends up in the water source, but as you're replacing things, it's worth just running them through the Yucca app to see. How they're scoring and if there are alternatives that you can use instead, other practical steps you can take are spending time in nature. We all know about this. Fresh air and greenery can help calm the nervous system. Best thing you can probably do is go and hug a tree or lie on the ground and bond with the earth whilst looking up at the stars as well. And the moon, I mean, what more can you say? And then hot and cold therapy. You know that I go on about this a lot. I talk about saunas a lot. I talk about cold water dipping a lot. If you don't know that. I do, I'll link in the show notes to a couple of guides that I've got to get you started on your sauna journey, if that's a, an avenue you'd like to go down or to start on your cold dipping journey, if that's something that you are tempted to investigate to, please don't be put off and think that you have to be hardcore and brave to cold water dip. You don't because I am neither of those things, but it is about what's on the other side and. Honestly, the mild discomfort is nothing compared to some of the other things we, we will have been through in life. So please don't be put off by it. Now, out of all of these, I think my best advice to you is to identify which of these triggers are most relevant to you. And to start with one small action for each. And just remember, consistency beats perfection every time. It's better to be consistent on just one or two little things than to try and do everything at once and then discover a few weeks down the line that everything has fallen by the wayside. I know from my own behavior it is quite hard to reprogram ourselves and to introduce new things and to stick to them over time. So just one or two small things is definitely a better option. But when you take steps to reduce inflammation, there are beautiful benefits that ripple across your whole life. You have more energy and recover better. After exercise, you can think more clearly and have a better memory. This is definitely something that I've noticed an improvement in. You feel less bloated, you have less joint stiffness, you have better mood and emotional resilience. You have improved sleep and you feel lighter and more comfortable in your own body and really what we want is to live well and to feel good and to enjoy this stage of life as fully as we can. So if by taking just a few small steps, we can do anything to help towards that. I am. All about embracing it wholeheartedly. As I said before, though, in a way that works and that isn't overwhelming. Let's just circle back to what I promised at the start and see how we've looked at each of the issues raised. So by way of a recap, inflammation is your body's signal system. It's helpful in the short term, but harmful if chronic. So why it matters in midlife in particular is that hormonal changes, stress, diet, and lifestyle factors make chronic inflammation more likely affecting energy, mood, joint sleep, and cognitive clarity. And I think it's really helpful to know that, so that on those days when we wake up and go, oh, I'm just really old now. Or, oh, I'm going mad, or, oh, what's wrong with me? Actually, maybe it isn't anything that is super complicated and maybe it is something that we can deal with relatively easily, in terms of how it shows up, we can have a puffy face, bloating, joint stiffness, brain fog, fatigue, mood changes, poor sleep, and headaches. So pretty much all of those things that we can suffer on a daily basis without any real explanation as to why and what you can do about it. Trigger by trigger. You can look at them and figure out steps for hormones, diet, stress, sleep, movement, and environment. That should make a difference. But remember to start small and stay consistent and build your habits gradually. The benefits of reducing it include more. Which all of us would love, I think, better recovery after exercise, clearer thinking. Wouldn't it be great not to wander into a room and wonder why you are there, or to open the fridge and actually know what you are looking for, or to go upstairs and not get to the top of the stairs and think, why have I come upstairs and what was I actually about to do? Or in my case, not to lose keys constantly or take two sets out with me in error. All those things that we do every day, you feel less discomfort, better mood, and overall improved quality of life. So if you are thinking about your own body now, I think the first question to ask yourself is what out of everything bothers me the most? And then which small changes can I start implementing today? Because even tiny steps add up over time. Personally. I'd love to hear what you are taking away from today. I'd love you to come tell me on Instagram. You can find me at Beth Goodham. Just pop me a DM to let me know what you think and what changes you are thinking about implementing, even if they're tiny, even if it's going to bed 15 minutes earlier every day and trying to drink a liter of water extra a day. If you want to go deeper into reducing inflammation, you can download My Guides, the Sauna Guide that I mentioned, and also my cold plunge guide and I've got a guide, which is available in my Etsy shop, which is called the Beth Good Dream Studio, and that is how to eat low carb and sugar free. There's lots of recipes in there. There's a meal plan, there's a shopping list. There are quick and easy swaps that you can make. There's lists of snacks, everything in there if you are interested in embracing a low sugar, carb free lifestyle, All of these are designed to help you feel lighter, clearer, and more energized in life. If you found today's episode helpful, it would mean the world to me if you shared it with a friend who might need it too. And if you haven't already, it would be great if you could follow the show so you never miss an episode. Leaving a quick review is another lovely way to help more women find the support. Thank you for being here with me today. And remember, keep moving, keep mindful and keep showing up for yourself. Lots of love and bye for now.