Inflammation is more than just the current
health buzzword – it’s the factor scientists are pointing to as the potential
root of most diseases.
What do cancer, heart disease, strokes,
diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, obesity,
depression and arthritis have in common? Aside from being chronic illnesses,
these diseases are being grouped together by scientists who believe chronic
inflammation is the single biggest contributing factor to each of them.
Inflammation
is more than just the current health buzzword – it’s the factor scientists are
pointing to as the potential root of most diseases.
This news, researched and backed up in
study after study. is particularly interesting in that it’s only relatively
recently that the medical fraternity has come to show that inflammation — a
part of the body’s natural defence system — can go rogue and turn this defence
into an attack, and to accept that this is potentially the root of all
degenerative diseases.
When the good things turns bad
If you’ve ever burnt yourself while pulling
dinner out of the oven, you’ll know exactly what inflammation is — it’s the
bright red mark that immediately pops up, and the blister that follows. It’s
the purple bruise after a knock, the swelling after a twisted ankle, or the red
heat around an infected tooth. Essentially, it’s the body’s built-in first-aid
response to an injury, to prevent further infection and assist the body’s repair
processes.
This acute inflammatory response — where
the body identifies which cells are damaged and require repair — switches on
when it’s needed and then retreats when it’s not. But when it doesn’t retreat,
pro-inflammatory cells continue to be stimulated, eventually becoming highly
destructive, resulting in chronic inflammation.
When this state continues, it can lead to
the expression of genes that can trigger major diseases — primarily coronary
artery disease and cancer.
How does the switch from acute to chronic occur?
Chronic inflammation can occur in two ways:
either because of repeated exposure to an offender such as Candida — in which
case the body never gets a rest from the acute inflammation phase — or because
it’s triggered by cellular stress and dysfunction caused by diet and
environmental factors. Once chronic inflammation settles in and spreads, it can
result in metabolic collapse, resulting in long-term damage.
Once
chronic inflammation settles in and spreads, it can result in metabolic
collapse, resulting in long-term damage.
This cellular stress is essentially a
breakdown in communication between your body’s innate immune system (what
you’re born with) and your acquired immune system (which develops according to
the environment, toxins or allergens you’re exposed to).
How do i know if I have it?
In contrast to acute inflammation, which
makes itself felt, chronic inflammation is more insidious in that it often
falls just below the point at which you’d clearly identify it as ‘pain’. Because
of this, chronic inflammation is sometimes referred to as ‘silent’
inflammation.
However, there are some signs to look out
for: general congestion and stuffiness, body aches and pains, lethargy,
digestive troubles such as indigestion, stiffness or swelling around joints,
shortness of breath, poor complexion or acne, and weight gain. These, of
course, can also be symptoms of myriad other problems, which further
complicates matters when trying to get a diagnosis, and because they might be
vague, test results might not show anything out of the ordinary.
Because
of this, chronic inflammation is sometimes referred to as ‘silent’
inflammation.
If you feel that you’ve been suffering from
these symptoms, or have had an unexplained few years of ‘just not feeling
well’, the first test to ask your doctor about is the C Reactive Protein (CRP)
test. When the innate and acquire immune systems communicate with one another
through a series of biochemical reactions, they turn the inflammatory response
on and off. But if this response isn’t turned off, this test will show an
increase in CRP. even if there’s no obvious reason for that inflammatory
response to have been activated. Incidentally, CRP is also used to assess your
risk of heart disease and stroke.
What damage does it cause?
‘If you have inflammation you cannot be
well,’ says Dr Barry Sears, author of The Anti-lnfla,wnation Zone. This is
because the pro-inflammatory immune cells can damage healthy, functioning parts
of our body, such as pancreatic tissue (potentially resulting in diabetes) or
joint tissue (leading to arthritis).
‘If
you have inflammation you cannot be well,’ says Dr Barry Sears
In addition, chronic inflammation also
compromises the immune system by overworking it, and once this occurs, all forms
of chronic illnesses can occur, even those which don’t necessarily exhibit
pro-inflammatory markers such as CRP.
Who is most at risk?
There are a number of groups who are at a
greater risk of their body’s inflammatory response not shutting off when it’s
no longer required. Older adults form the biggest of these groups — it’s
believed the older you are, the higher the chance that you have consistently
raised levels of inflammatory markers. And while it’s not yet fully understood
why, perimenopausal and menopausal women are believed to be most at risk, which
could go some way to understanding why women are more likely than men to have
an auto- immune disease.
Obesity is thought to be another risk
factor, as are low sex hormones, which help modulate the inflammatory response
and which decrease after menopause. and a diet high in saturate fat.
