Chronic Inflammation: America’s Silent Killer –
Most conditions and diseases that were once thought to be caused by natural aging are actually the effects of Chronic Inflammation (CI). In fact, many health trends have chronic inflammation at the core from obesity to asthma to arthritis to eczema. Inflammation is the body’s natural reaction to injury, but when it’s unnecessary, it can do more harm than good. CI, when left untreated, weakens the immune system making the body more susceptible to infection and disease. The scary part is, most of those who have chronic inflammation don’t know it, making it truly America’s silent killer. Instead of treating the cause, CI, they treat the symptoms, ending only in temporary relief.
CI is often seen on people with poor diets, full of trans-fats, processed meats and factory foods. We are able to reduce inflammation in the body by removing foods that cause inflammation, and by adding foods that reduce inflammation to our diets. People with existing heart conditions, diabetes, long-term infections and even stress are more likely to develop CI, as well.
What is Inflammation? Should We Reduce It?
What is inflammation? I remember having a discussion that inflammation causes disease, and the person thought the idea was baloney and said that inflammation is a natural part of our immune system. She stated that this “inflammation causes disease” notion was just some new holistic health fad and that inflammation wasn’t bad and was a good thing.
She was correct that “inflammation” can be a good thing, however it is the way we define inflammation that needs to be examined. When there is concern that we need to reduce inflammation, the concern is about reducing chronic inflammation and not acute inflammation.
Acute Inflammation is a very good thing and is a process that heals the body against injury and disease. It is chronic inflammation that is harmful and is caused by a disruption in the natural and protective acute inflammation process. The issue is that the term inflammation is being used to describe both conditions which confuses the issue.
Acute Inflammation
Why does inflammation occur? Acute inflammation is a process where the body increases blood flow to capillaries in an area of the body that has been injured or infected. The process includes dilation of the blood vessels, which allows blood to flow through less restricted.
The capillaries also become more permeable allowing fluids, proteins, and white blood cells (neutrophils, eosinophils, and or macrophages), and pro-inflammatory cells to escape the capillaries and to enter the affected area. This action localizes the infected or injured tissue causing inflammation or swelling in the area to maximize the healing process. Under normal circumstances the acute inflammation is turned off after the infected or injured area has been healed.
Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation happens when acute inflammation is not completely turned off and this is when there is concern that we need to reduce inflammation. Under this condition pro-inflammatory cells are slowly and continuously released into the body and act like a slow-burning fire, slowly destroying the cells they come in contact with. This is an immune system over-response. But it can become self-perpetuating. The body generates additional inflammation in response to the problem inflammation. Occasionally the immune system becomes erratic and generates an unnecessary inflammatory response with no injury or disease process present. This is referred to as an autoimmune condition. This continuous release of inflammatory cells can lead to diseases like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and arthritis.
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