Inflammation, inflammation, inflammation!! Nowadays we hear all this talk about inflammation, everywhere we look we hear people saying how inflammation is the devil reincarnated, they try to “fix” this inflammation problem with all sorts of diets and drugs, but is inflammation that bad for you?
What is inflammation?
So you went out with your friends to play some basketball, that’s good, exercise is good for you, you know what isn’t good for you? That friend of yours that’s really bad at basketball, he was way too aggressive during the match and made you fall.
You limped all the way back home and checked on your knee only to realize it was swollen, hot, red it really hurt and you weren’t able to move it.
What the hell happened to your knee? It was Inflammation!!
Let me explain, inflammation is the way your body reacts to an infection or lesion. When you have a lesion or an infection many chemicals are secreted in the area, histamine, leukotrienes, prostaglandins, chemokines, etc. These chemicals are going to tell your immunity system and blood system that you have a lesion thus calling nutrients, blood cells, and immune cells (macrophages and neutrophils) to the affected area, to combat the infection and repair the affected place.
The clinical manifestations of inflammation are:
- Pain
- Increase in temperature
- Swelling
- Loss of function
- Redness
What are anti-inflammatory drugs?
Anti-inflammatory drugs are a type of drug that works to reduce inflammation, they can be divided into 2 subtypes depending if they are based on hormones or not:
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) - these work by inhibiting the COX enzyme. The cox enzyme is involved in the production of prostaglandins, one of the chemical signals the cells utilize to call blood cells and immune cells from the blood vessels to the injured area. They don’t, however, work on leukotrienes, keeping a part of inflammation still present. As examples of this subtype, we have ibuprofen and aspirin.
Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs AKA corticosteroids – these work by inhibiting the phospholipase A2 enzyme, inhibiting the production of prostaglandins and leukotrienes, which make them more effective than NSAIDs.
Ok, so I just told you that inflammation is the mechanism that your body utilizes to increase the healing speed, and anti-inflammatory drugs stop and or reduce inflammation, so why should we take anti-inflammatory drugs? Won’t that decrease the speed of healing?
When to take?
When you need to go back to work as fast as you can:
As I mentioned above, inflammation causes pain, swelling and loss of function, these three symptoms can sometimes get in the way of our daily jobs, and we need those jobs to pay our bills... so if inflammation is getting in the way of your job then yes you should take anti-inflammatory drugs to go back to work as fast as you can, but just know that by taking those anti-inflammatory drugs your healing speed will be decreased, and there are some studies being done that are trying to correlate chronic tendinopathy with the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
Storytime:
I’m about to tell you something that happened to me some years ago.
When I was 19 years old I torn my meniscus, my knee swelled up and I couldn’t move my leg, my doctor told me to rest, elevate and take some anti-inflammatory, my brother however, which is also a doctor, told me that I shouldn’t take those, that since I was on vacation and I had time to heal I should let inflammation run its course… this was during my first year in veterinary medicine, I searched online, and used my own knowledge and I did what my brother told me, it took 2 months for the inflammation to go away, my knee repaired itself and is now at 99%, yes I had to wait/lose 2 months of my vacations, but at least I won’t have to live with a half repaired meniscus for the rest of my life, like I see in many people.
When you have a condition that causes chronic inflammation
There are many types of conditions that cause chronic inflammation, everything that is in excess is bad for you, even inflammation, to name a few of those conditions we got asthma, autoimmune disorders, Crohn’s disease, etc..
What about anti-inflammatory diets?
Nowadays we live in constant stress, that stress makes us release a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol works in many ways around your body, one of those ways is by causing inflammation, this is where anti-inflammatory diets come in, they can be used to lower the effects of the inflammation caused by cortisol.
Anti-inflammatory diets have also been helpful to reduce chronic inflammation.
What types of food can I consume in an anti-inflammatory diet?
Foods:
The base of anti-inflammatory diets is to consume more good fats, fruits, and vegetables like vegans and vegetarians do, and less meat, fried foods, refined carbohydrates (carbs) and sugary drinks.
SourceSpices:
You can also use some spices to reduce inflammation, like ginger and turmeric, you can also add black pepper which increases the absorption of turmeric by A LOT, according to the studies.
Source
I should also mention that some studies have found a correlation between inflammation and the aging process but since there aren't that many studies about the issue I'm going to wait, "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"
I'm happy to discuss this topic in the comment section, I'm always glad to know more and to learn from my fellow steemians
DISCLAIMER: Always remember that I'm just a random guy on the internet, you should always do your own research and talk with your doctor about medical expertise
Resources :
https://www.webmd.com/diet/anti-inflammatory-diet-road-to-good-health#1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2770552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10623981
http://stoneathleticmedicine.com/2013/11/why-ice-and-anti-inflammatory-medication-is-not-the-answer/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162546.htm
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/248423.php
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918523/ - one of the many studies that correlate the increase in turmeric absorption (curcumin to be more specific) with the intake of black pepper
If you enjoyed this post, check out some of my other posts:
https://steemit.com/education/@teutonium/how-antibiotics-are-killing-people-indirectly