Are you experiencing fatigue, aches and pains, skin issues, digestive complaints, headaches, or other nagging, chronic symptoms? Chronic inflammation may be the cause. Chronic inflammation is the root cause of most chronic symptoms and diseases. Testing for inflammation markers can help to find underlying health issues, uncovering the root causes of your problems, creating an appropriate treatment plan, measuring your progress, and regaining your health and vitality.
In this article, you will learn about what inflammation is. You will understand the problems with chronic inflammation.
What Is Inflammation?
The inflammatory process protects our body from damage and disease by releasing cells and mediators that combat foreign substances and help prevent infection.
Inflammation is your body’s natural defense mechanism against foreign pathogens, toxins, allergens, injuries, and other harm. Your immune system’s response to any harm or cellular injury by increasing blood flow, capillary dilation, leukocyte infiltration, and the production of various chemical mediators. This complex process helps your body to produce antibodies and cytokines. This process helps to protect your body and fight hostile pathogens from eliminating toxic agents and repairing tissue damage.
In case of an injury, inflammation also helps to protect the affected area and support recovery. Inflammation is clearly necessary and a friend to your body when it comes to acute infections or injuries. chronic, low-grade, systemic inflammation can be problematic and harmful.
The Problems with Chronic Inflammation
Acute inflammation is essential for your health. It’s a critical part of your body’s survival response to injury, infection, or illness. It protects you from pathogens and supports the recovery and repair of damaged cells. Acute inflammation starts quickly, usually within minutes, upon infection. It may last for a few days or in some cases a few weeks, but decreases gradually and disappears upon recovery. Signs of acute inflammation may include pain, gut problem, swelling, redness, heat, itching, or in case of respiratory issues or allergies, sneezing, coughing, congestion, and watery eyes.
Chronic inflammation is different. Low-grade, chronic inflammation is systemic. It can last for months, years, or for life if not addressed. While acute inflammation tends to have a specific cause, such as an injury, infection, allergen, or toxic exposure, chronic inflammation doesn’t have one specific cause.
Chronic inflammation tends to develop over time due to a combination of issues, including a poor diet, poor lifestyle choice, chronic stress, environmental toxin exposure, and other factors. These factors place an excessive stress load on the body. As a response, your body produces inflammatory modulators throughout your body, which can overwhelm your immune system and body overall.
Chronic and ongoing inflammatory stimulus can lead to white blood cell recruitment, cellular changes, and increased inflammation. Excess white blood cells may end up attacking your cells, tissues, or internal organs, which will lead to a continuous inflammatory response and on-going health issues
How inflammation affects your body?
Inflammation is at the root of practically all know chronic health conditions.
Chronic inflammation can be incredibly harmful to your body. Symptoms of chronic inflammation can vary from person to person and may include fatigue, chronic pain, headaches, migraines, muscles aches, joint pain, skin issues, brain fog, memory issues, insomnia, gastrointestinal issues, anxiety, depression, mood swings, weight gain, weight loss, obesity, hormonal issues, frequent infections, early signs of aging, and more. Chronic inflammation is also linked to autoimmune diseases.
Also, has linked chronic inflammation to brain inflammation, mental health issues, and brain health problems.
Chronic inflammation may be connected to depression, anxiety, addictions, other mental health issues, memory issues, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Chronic inflammation can affect all areas of your body, including your digestive system, kidneys, liver, lungs, brain, endocrine system, hormonal health, heart, skin, muscles, and bones.
Brain –Pro inflammatory cytokines cause autoimmune reactions in the brain, which can lead to depression, autism, poor memory. Alzeihmer disease and MS- sclerosis multiple.
Cardiovascular- Inflammation in the heart, arterial and venous walls contributes to heart disease, stroke, high blood sugar (diabetes) and anemia
Muscle – Inflammatory cytokines can cause muscle pain and weakness.
Bones – Inflammatory interferes with the body’s natural ability to repair bone mass, increasing the number of fractures and leading to conditions like osteoporosis.
Tyroid – Autoimmunity as a result of inflammation can reduce total thyroid receptor count and distrupt thyroid hormone function.
Lungs – Inflammation induces autoimmune reactions against the linings of airways. Can result in allergies or astma.
GI Tract – Chronic inflammation damages our intestinal lining and can result in issues like GERD, Chohn’s disease and celiac disease.
Kidneys – Inflammatory cytokines restrict blood flow to the kidneys. Complications like edema, hypertension and kidney failure can result.
Mitochondria – are tiny structures within just about every cell of your body. They are responsible for producing the energy your cells need to carry out their functions. What many people don’t realize is that these tiny structures are also very vulnerable to chronic inflammation. What this means is that chronic inflammation damages mitochondria, lowers your body’s overall ability to function and heal, and steals energy from just about every process in your body.
The spinning wheel of mitochondrial damage and dysfunction
Factors leading to damage:
Poor diet
Chronic stress
Infections
Toxins
Poor sleep
Aging
METABOLIC INSTABILITY:
Lowered energy production
Increased Metabolic Waste
Increased Oxidative stress
Lowered anti-oxidant production
DAMAGE AND DYSFUNCTION:
Dyfunctional energy production
Poor fatty acid metabolism
Metabolic inflexibility
Protein damage
Increased oxidative stress
All this leads to CHRONIC DISEASE DEVELOPMENT.
Considering all the issues chronic inflammation can cause and all the symptoms, health issues, and diseases it’s associated with, it’s important that you get tested for inflammatory markers. Understanding inflammatory lab markers are critical for identifying underlying health issues and making appropriate changes to repair your body and regain your health and vitality.
It can help your functional health professional to create a personalized treatment plan, including dietary changes, lifestyle recommendations, and appropriate supplementation to improve your health.
Elena
Holistic Health Coach