What is Inflammation?

Inflammation refers to the human body’s method of defending itself against harmful things such as injuries, toxins, and different infections. Inflammation is our body’s way of healing itself.

Without your body’s inflammation response, wounds would start festering and any infection you get develop into a much more serious threat to your health. While it is an essential body process, inflammation can sometimes be problematical and plays a significant role in chronic diseases.

What Causes Inflammation?

When something attacks the cells in your body, your body immediately releases chemicals that work to trigger your immune system.

This triggering then allows the immune system to respond by releasing proteins and antibodies that move to the specific area of the body where they are needed, and blood flow to the area is increased as well. Inflammation helps our body defend and protect itself against foreign invaders, and also helps to repair damaged tissue.

Inflammation is classified as redness, warmth, swelling, some levels of immobility, and pain in some instances. A good example? Stubbing your toe. After the impact, your body’s first reaction to this is the release of proteins known as cytokines. These proteins act as emergency signals to bring in immune cells, nutrients, and hormones to fix your toe.

Types Of Inflammation

There are two kinds of inflammation; acute inflammation and chronic inflammation.

• Acute Inflammation

This refers to inflammation you experience after you scrape or cut your skin. Some examples of this inflammation are a sprained ankle, acute bronchitis, an infected ingrown nail, appendicitis, tonsillitis or a sore throat. 

This inflammation is usually short-term, and the effects subside after only a few days. This inflammation is usually the initial response your body has to any kind of infection or injury, and it involves moving of plasma as well as leukocytes in the tissue that has been injured.

• Chronic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is sometimes also known as systemic inflammation and is more of a long-term condition. This kind of inflammation takes place in wear and tear surroundings and includes allergies, osteoarthritis, asthma, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel syndrome,  and Crohn’s disease.

Other factors such as a poor diet, stress, smoking, lack of exercise, excessive weight loss, poor dental health, consuming too much alcohol and pollution can even lead to chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation caused by autoimmune diseases can lead to your body being confused as to who’s welcome and who’s not. As a result,  it can be that the body starts to attack normal tissues because of being misinformed by your central nervous system.

Chronic inflammation is also sometimes known as persistent or low-grade inflammation. This low-grade inflammation takes place when your body triggers an inflammation response to an internal threat that does not require an inflammatory response. The white blood cells then collect together and, since they don’t find an obvious source of any problem, they start to attack your internal organs and cells.

Signs & Symptoms Of Inflammation

You can determine if you are suffering from chronic inflammation in a variety of ways. Some common chronic inflammation symptoms include:

• Excess Belly Fat

Excess Belly fat is a reliable indicator for inflammation for many people. Fat cells start the production of inflammatory chemicals and it becomes that the more fat you have then the more the chemicals that will be produced in your body, leading to chronic inflammation.

• High Blood Glucose Levels

Another indicator for inflammation is high blood sugar levels. If your body has a high blood sugar level, then the number of inflammatory cytokines will increase alongside your blood sugar levels. This will also increase destructive molecules in your bloodstream that in turn promote inflammation.

• Digestive Issues

Digestive problems like bloating, constipation, gas, and diarrhea are also symptoms of inflammation.

• Tiring Easily

Since inflamed cells are also known as sick cells, they are incapable of providing the energy you need to be at your best. You may end up feeling fatigued and tired even after just waking up or a long period of rest during the day. Chronic inflammation may make you extremely exhausted by afternoon, and you may want to go back to sleep.

• You Have Allergies

If you always have watery eyes and a nose that keeps on running, you likely have allergies and chronic inflammation may be a reality for you too. Another symptom of chronic inflammation is having a puffy face or puffy, bagguy eyes. Chronically puffy eyes is a very common sign of internal inflammation.

Some other inflammation symptoms include erectile dysfunction, gum disease, anxiety, depression or having brain fog. If you experience the above-mentioned symptoms, visit your doctor and have him or her test you for chronic inflammation right away.

Treatment For Inflammation

Inflammation, as mentioned earlier, is part of the body’s natural healing process. However, chronice inflammation can be treated with the following methods.

• Use Of Medication

There are anti-inflammatory medications present on the market known as NSAIDs. These medications can be taken to reduce the pain that inflammation causes. These medications help stabilize an enzyme that contributes to inflammation and are able to prevent inflammation, or reduce the pain caused by it.

• Corticosteroids

A class of steroidal hormones known as corticosteroids can help in preventing many symptoms of inflammation. There are two types of corticosteroids; glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids.

• Diet Change

There are several foods that can help you reduce inflammation. Some common products include tomatoes, olive oil, leafy green vegetables, fruits such as oranges and blueberries, walnuts and almonds and fish with Omega 3 oils like salmon.

To treat inflammation, it is important that you cut out the following products mentioned below and drink home made gut-healing bone broth made at home. It has anti-inflammatory powers that can help you treat chronic inflammation or any other skin inflammation that you may have.

Avoid eating the following foods, as they are known to contribute to inflammation:

• Fried foods
• Products that contain carbohydrates such as white bread and pastry
• Sugary drinks and sodas
• Red meat

Apart from taking care of your diet, also make sure that you exercise daily and get proper amounts of sleep. As well, meditating and removing any stress in your life will help in lowering the toxic chemicals present in your body and help in decreasing inflammation too.

References:

1. R&D Systems – Cytokines in Wound Healing
2. Atkins – How It Works