So what exactly is Chronic Inflammation?
Firstly you need to have a basic understanding of what 'normal' inflammation is before we discuss chronic inflammation. I'll keep it as short as I can.
Inflammation is a localised reaction to tissue damage, for example, if you're injured or cut. When and injury occurs inflammatory chemicals are released which cause swelling, redness, pain & heat. Inflammatory chemicals are a kind of molecule which work on the site of damage and essentially organise the inflammatory response. What they do is cause the immune system to fire up and bring more blood to the area of damage, this brings immune cells to the site to fight infection, more nutrients to heal the damage, and small proteins such as fibrinogen to form a clot. It is the activity of all these molecules at the site which cause the pain, heat, swelling and redness. You can almost think of it as a building site, when you have a cut all of these different individual cells with different jobs come together to fix the damage.
After all of this the next stage is healing, the capillary network is re-built, new tissue forms and hormones known as growth factors stimulate the production of collagen to strengthen the area. If there was heavy damage, then this process may leave a scar as much more collagen is needed at the site. Scars can form inside and outside the body. (2)
This process is called Acute inflammation. Acute meaning short-term, it's something everyone of us is familiar with.
Chronic inflammation is a whole different kettle of fish. Chronic meaning long-term.
Chronic inflammation is not so much associated with an injury. When defending the body from pathogens and infection, which all of our bodies are doing all of the time, the immune system fires up and sends an army of immune cells to deal with the infected cells, which is the same process as above. This process destroys infected cells but damages near by tissues in the process too. The whole area gets obliterated to make sure the infected cells are wiped out entirely. This is normally very short lived, and the damaged healthy cells are quickly repaired and we are totally oblivious to the whole process. Sometimes however, this army does not retreat, it keeps attacking the tissue in the affected area, and this is what causes chronic pain, swelling, and loss of mobility in some cases. (2)
Chronic inflammation is not experienced the same way by any two people, and can manifest anywhere in the body. Chronic inflammatory disorders are common in Western countries and include,- IBS, eczema, asthma, osteoarthritis, Crohn's disease, MS, Alzheimer's and many more. (1)
How many people have been given such diagnosis but do not actually understand that they are different manifestations of chronic inflammation, and there is so much they could do to ease their suffering if they had the understanding and knew where to look.
What causes it? That's a whole other topic, however essentially there is no single known cause. It can be one of, or a combination of the presence of microbes, toxins, allergens, stress, & genetic predisposition. I find it very interesting that it's basically unheard of outside of the Western world. Is chronic disease just a symptom of our sick society- over stressed, disconnected, toxin consuming society. Food for thought.
The field of Psychoneuroimmunology has done research which proves the immune system is directly affected by our thoughts, negative thoughts having a very negative impact and directly causing chronic inflammation. All that meditation stuff isn't so whacky now is it?
The scientists call is Psychoneuroimmunology, the hippies call it Mindfulness, and the ancients called it Energy. Having studied in both fields I can see connections, big ones, where both disciplines are discussing the same thing. The construction phase is early, but the bridge's foundation has been laid between the two fields.
If this topic was helpful and interesting I can write a follow up about ways to help reduce Chronic Inflammation via nutrition and holistic methods. I'm not going to trawl through all of my books now this post may not be of any interest to anyone. If you would like to see a follow up let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading.
References
1- Clayton, P. (2004). Health Defence. 2nd Edn. Accelerated Learning Systems LTD.
2-Paxton.F. (2015). Foundations of Naturopathic Nutrition. Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Image sources
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