Inflammation Nation
I write this blog after the holidays and things have calmed down and its time to get to work. It allows me the chance to reflect on a holiday that was a reminder of my past. It always seems to happen around a big day or event. Weddings, dances, parties and the holidays are the time of year that we want to look best. For someone who is hyper-sensitive to food and it’s inflammatory effects these are the exact times of year when it seems to strike. Let me share my story.
It is mid-December 2025, we just wrapped up the Thanksgiving Holiday and are roaring toward a great Christmas Season. I noticed an inflammation under my right cheek. For those who do not experience side effects like that let me explain. The initial indication that I have poisoned and therefore inflamed myself is not visual, it is a sensation you get in the area that you know you are going to have negative visual side effect. Of course I spent everyday trying to figure out what I had eaten this time. A week went by and I thought this was not going to be a major facial episode until it did become a major facial episode (atleast to me it did). This moment was about as apparent as when we found out our son was allergic to dairy (this I will explain in another blog). As the mound on my face began to gain size and redness I was driving with my wife who was having terrible tooth pain. It was pain to the point that she was going to try and book an emergency trip to the dentist. As we drove I reflected on what I ate and why my reaction seemed almost “ignited”. The red mark that came in subdued a week ago was all of a sudden not at all subdued. Something in the last 24 hours I had eaten had to be the cause of my new aggressive feeling and looking reaction. Remember, I do not eat a very wide variety of food so I immediately began to investigate. All I had to do was ask my AI if the cheese I had on my pizza the night before might cause my cheek inflammation. Bingo. Cheese can absolutely cause facial blemishes and redness due to inflammation side effects caused by dairy. We had been doing Taco Tuesdays and that is what I had to kick off the initial mark on my cheek. The pizza a week later kicked it into over gear. Problem solved for me but I still had a wife in pain who needed to figure out what was up with her molars. That’s when I asked my AI if cheese could be causing the tooth pain my wife was having. Holy Shit, PROBLEM SOLVED. Of course my AI suggested that pain in teeth is a common side effect to cheese and or dairy. These are WOW moments people. Moments that you realized something that will effect with you for the rest of your life, in a very positive way. My AI indicated that the inflammation could last weeks and gave me advice on how to best mange it. It is January 26th 2026 and I am free of inflammation. I had one hiccup and paid a small red mark price after eating some gluten free cheese its. I took a picture of the ingredients and asked my AI what might be causing inflammation and the first answer was dairy. I have not knowingly had dairy/cheese in about a month. I have replaced cheese with avocado on Taco Tuesdays. I stare at my face in the mirror in awe when I get home when I see no flush red face. I wake up the next day with no new red marks or any inflammation.
This holiday season I was reminded what growing up me was like. I was reminded how often you go into a bathroom to find a mirror to see what is the status of your face is. Imagine having an egg and cheese muffin for breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and maybe a cheese burger for dinner. Cheese on tacos, salads and vegetables. Grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese and crackers there is cheese everywhere. The end result is that your face and many other parts of your body go into a hyper sense of inflammation.
So I start the new year off feeling blessed more than ever to have my food allergies. Blessed to try to understand the balance of my body’s physical health and mental health. Blessed to have learned that all of the past struggles I have had with facial flushness and acne have been caused by different triggers. Triggers that can be controlled. Cheers to 2026. What’s your triggers??