by Why do our ankles swell when they are sprained, or does our skin become red – or inflamed – when it is scraped off?
This quick reaction is caused by inflammation – and can save your life.
In its core, inflammation is the “reaction of the body to an illness or an injury to try to restore health,” said Dr. Robert Shmerling, rheumatologist and faculty member of the Harvard Medical School, who has reported a report on inflammation.
The inflammation is under fire because it has been under fire with a variety of chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and even allergies. Long -term experience experts even see a reduction in chronic inflammation as a key to healthier age.
“It is a classic double -edged sword,” said Dr. David Hafler, neurologist and professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine.
Inflammation is necessary for survival, and without them our body would not be able to ward off intruders such as viruses and bacteria. A sore throat, for example, becomes red and is painful because the immune system fights against the infection to prevent the doctors from describing themselves as acute inflammation, said Dr. Moshe Arditi, a pediatrician and director of the research center for infectious and immunological diseases in the Cedars-Ssina medical center in Los Angeles.
“The localized immune response at the acute level is – to a limited extent – an advantageous inflammation,” he said.
The discovery of inflammation comes from centuries on the Roman encyclopedic Aulus Cornelius Celcus, one of the first people who define it. Celcus described the core sign of inflammation in Latin as RubyPresent tumorPresent CalorePresent Delore. The terms lead to reddening, swelling, heat and pain that still apply.
At the microscopic level, acute inflammation includes the sending of liquids, proteins and white blood cells to the places of infections or injuries that help combat strange pathogens and promote healing.
While the inflammation can be life -saving at short notice, there is a different kind of inflammation, chronic inflammation, which can damage the body in the long term.
What causes chronic inflammation?
In several risk factors, your body has more likely to be obtained in chronic inflammation-which promotes an inflammatory state with a low level in the entire body, smoking and diet of tobacco.
Dr. Thaddeus Stappenbeck, chairman of inflammation and immunity in the Cleveland Clinic, suspects that modern American nutrition is a main source of chronic inflammation.
Processed foods, refined sugar, trans fats and excessive consumption of red meat are associated with increased inflammation. The Food and Drug Administration banned Trans fat in 2015 and were finally removed from snacks, bread, cookies and other baked goods in 2018.
“I suspect that there are more people with underlying chronic inflammation than in the past,” said Stappenbeck. “I think about how we have changed our diet, where we eat many chemicals that we should not consume, and these have a number of effects on our intestine.”
Shmerling said: “Lack of movement, lack of sleep, too much stress, all of these are lifestyle factors that are anti -inflammatory.”
What are symptoms of inflammation?
Signs can vary, but they include:
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Joint pain that does not improve.
Weight loss, regular exercise and avoidance of highly processed foods can reduce inflammatory levels in the body, said Shmerling. Studies have shown that after a Mediterranean diet, which is largely on a focal point with a focus on the entire fruit and vegetables, which can reduce inflammatory levels.
“It is often not an on/off type of switch,” he said. “We have no perfect ways to measure inflammation after changing the lifestyle, but inflammatory markers can improve with changes in the lifestyle.”
How chronic inflammation influence the heart
According to centers, an estimated 129 million people in the United States have at least one chronic illness for the control and prevention of diseases. According to Stanford University, the prevalence of chronic diseases has grown by around 7 million people every five years.
The causes of chronic diseases are complicated, but experts are increasingly convinced that inflammation play a role.
“There is a reasonable part of the consensus that many of the chronic diseases that we now see in a higher prevalence than in the past, could be related to chronic inflammation,” said Shmerling.
What comes first – the inflammation or the disease? If the body is in an inflammatory state, it can start to destroy exactly the things it needs, as we have for our vital organs and blood vessels.
“The persistent inflammation can lead to heart disease and the structure of plaque in the blood vessels, which can lead to heart attack and stroke,” said Arditi of Cedars-Sinai.
Autoimmune diseases such as lupus or multiple sclerosis are also associated with chronic inflammation, since the immune system attacks different parts of the body in friendly fire.
“The body does not differ properly between itself and an external crossing or an pathogen,” said Shmerling. “There are chronic inflammation that are continuing and quite harmful.”
Diseases such as Parkinson’s and even diabetes have inflammatory components, said Stappenbeck. Due to the close relationship of inflammation to a large number of diseases, he is not surprised that patients who come to think about it.
“I think there is a wish of patients to say:” Can you actually recognize this in me earlier before I get super sick? “, He said.
Is there a test for chronic inflammation?
There are blood tests on inflammation, but they are not perfect. They do not provide clear answers about where the inflammation lurks in the body.
It can also be wrong. Experts therefore say that the tests have to be interpreted together with the symptoms.
One of the most common tests is called erythrocyte sedimentation rate, a blood test that measures the level of certain proteins that correlate with the amount of inflammation in the body.
Another test evaluates C-reactive protein (CRP), a protein that produces the liver in response to inflammation.
Due to the restrictions, Shmerling does not recommend that healthy people without symptoms are routinely examined for inflammation.
“There can be normal inflammation tests, even if there are inflammation, and sometimes the tests are abnormal, even if it doesn’t look like there are inflammation,” he said. “So they are not perfect.”
Stappenbeck agreed.
“I don’t think there is actually a big role in it,” he said.
There is a certain potential for a test called HS-CRP, a more sensitive test that can determine lower increases in the C-reactive protein in the blood. High protein levels in the blood were associated with heart attacks and lines.
Some argue that this test should be carried out routinely, just like when checking cholesterol, to determine who is exposed to more heart attacks and stroke.
However, the evidence was mixed, which is why the test is not widespread.
“There are people who are such a risk or a risk that it is very unlikely that the CRP will help them,” said Shmerling. “There are people of people, possibly with moderate risk, in which a CRP could be helpful for the heart risk.”
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com
