Chronic inflammation is not something you hear a lot about. Nowadays it seems the internet has a lot to say about diet supplements and health habits. Yet, there’s not much talk about the biggest underlying cause of most diseases.
Of course, genetics plays a role in many conditions like environment and lifestyle. But the one thing that’s found to be a common factor in all sicknesses is inflammation. Now, to be clear, there are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic.
Inflammation plays a role in immunity
First, we must define inflammation. When your doctor tells you that you have inflammation of X, Y, or Z, what does that even mean? Well, overuse of a joint or a cut can cause swelling, redness, and warmth. All these effects are a localized response of the immune system to protect the body from any more damage.
Luckily, our first-line protection often keeps us, unaware possible intruders, even exist. That’s because our skin, cough, nose hairs, mucus, stomach acid, and tears are so effective at forming a barrier. This is innate immunity. We are all blessed with this at birth.
Now, let’s discuss the two phases of the immune response: acute and chronic. The acute phase of inflammation is the immediate response to injury or stress. The body has the amazing ability to rally specialized cells to an area of weakness.
For instance, when you sprain your ankle you have an immediate reaction around the injury. Fighter cells rush in defense to kill any invaders that could cause infection.
Vaccines, Acquired Immunity (memory), and Inflammation
Instinctively, the human body has memory and can decide if the invader is still a threat based on history. For example, if you had chickenpox as a child, your body would recognize it when exposed to it again. In the same way, the body treats vaccines to build an immunity to things such as mumps, measle, and polio.
But, if the intruder isn’t recognized or stopped, other immune system organs will take over. Among these are the tonsils, adenoids, appendix, spleen, and lymph nodes to name a few. Even our bone marrow plays a role in producing immune cells.
Also, there are immune aspects of the small intestines. So, you may have heard talk of the importance of ‘gut health’. There is so much information on digestive health! It deserves a blog post of its own. Adding it to my to-do list right now!
Moreover, all-over inflammation happens with an infection such as a cold or the flu. This is the acute phase because the body can fight off the intruder with a functioning immune system.
What if immunity goes into overdrive? Chronic Inflammation.
Unfortunately, when the body’s defense weakens, inflammation can linger. Cells and organs of the immune system become overwhelmed by the invader and its own response to it. The overreaction develops what is chronic inflammation.
Interestingly, certain substances signal when inflammation should start and stop. They are cytokines. When signals are wrong, the immune system becomes ‘overboard’ for the situation.
When the immune system goes into overdrive, it can’t recognize when to stop fighting. So, the body can’t heal and return to balance. This hyperdrive immune reaction is chronic inflammation.
Therefore autoimmune diseases occur. When the immune system goes haywire it can treat parts of the body as intruders. In effect, instead of protecting, it attacks the body from within. This is not the only way hyper-immunity shows itself. It can also show as low-level chronic inflammation. The problem with this is that it is usually undetected until it has created serious problems.
Cytokines: Traffic Control for Inflammation
So, what causes the signal substances, cytokines, to get confused? Well, as incredible as the human body is and as intuitive as it can be in protection, it can’t tell one stress from another. In other words, the body sees overworking or eating junk food as stress the same as having a cold or injury.
Yes, that’s right! An unbalanced diet, lack of sleep, or avoiding routine exercise makes your body out of balance. That imbalance is stress. So, your immune system reacts to you being under constant attack. Because of this, it will remain in fight mode.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “spread too thin”? That’s what happens to your immune system when you’re under chronic stress. Chronic inflammation occurs when your immune system battles the chronic stress state. Most of the time you don’t even realize it.
Maybe, you don’t feel like you have a serious case of the flu. But your cytokines never send out the “all clear” signal to tell all the troops to retreat either. This leads to a weakened immune system because it has not had time to recuperate. Having no energy, frequent colds, or feeling ‘run-down’ are common for this reason.
So, when this continues, the vicious cycle of stress and immune response continues. This causes diseases to develop. Conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and even Alzheimer’s disease can happen. Of course, this is not a complete list of conditions caused by chronic inflammation. But, you get the picture.
What can be done about chronic inflammation?
So, the question you have now is, “What can I do to prevent chronic inflammation and support my immune system”? Giving up bad habits such as smoking is a good start! Chose a healthy lifestyle. Also, getting enough quality sleep, and making “me time” a priority is important. That may mean breaking the social media addiction and committing to your 9 to 5 ending at 5!
But please don’t stress over deciding how to lower your stress! How counterproductive would that be? Know that small changes and consistency create positive benefits for health. See the list below for simple things you can add to your daily routine. These will make a huge impact on how you feel as well as the health of your immune system.
- Go for a walk
- Get up and stretch
- Take a a break to be alone for a minute or two
- Learn to breathe – inhale for a 5 count, hold for a 5 count, and exhale for a 5 count
- Find what gives you peace and commit regular time to it
- Seek out support by talking to a friend, family member or clergy
- Join a social/support group
Of course, the healthier you eat and the more active you are the more benefits you will see.
Whole Health, Wellness, and Decreased Inflammation
Basically, there are 5 elements of whole health. They are physical, environmental, emotional, spiritual, and mental. Remember, whatever affects any of these aspects is a potential stressor. Also, whatever you add to your routine to improve these areas will reduce stress to your body as a whole. Thereby reducing disease-causing inflammation. Look at the list below to see the connection between element and action.
- Physical: avoid bad habits such as smoking, eat a healthy diet, get adequate sleep and exercise
- Environmental: Avoid exposure to pollution as much as possible, observe safety measures in all situations
- Emotional: Talk to friends, interact with others, take part in a hobby you enjoy
- Spiritual: Find whatever gives you peace and spiritual fulfillment
- Mental: Again, get enough good sleep! Listen to music. Take a break from work throughout the day, even if it’s just a minute or two. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you see you’re having difficulty.
Chronic Inflammation Recap
In conclusion, inflammation is a good thing to treat illness and injury. Until it becomes chronic and causes chronic disease. The good news is, we can do things to avoid it. The bad news is, most people don’t even realize it’s a thing. You can’t stop something you don’t know about. Fortunately, we all can learn, teach ourselves to do better to be better! The more we understand, the more we can help ourselves! Improving the quality of life through health and wellness!
References:
- MedlinePluse.gov
- Cedar-Siani.org
- Health.Harvard.edu
- Health.ClevelandClinic.org
- Healthline.com
- US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health
