Inflammation, Good or Bad?

By working in medical communications you are presented several different questions on a daily
basis. Some are accessible and straightforward, and some others are very high profile and demand further research. Nevertheless, even after these are answered, based on the many sources of information available in-house and spread out there through official sources, now and then remaining question marks still surface. I suspect that one universal question that always pester people's minds, be them the general public or highly proficient medical professionals is the importance and relevance of inflammation.  

If you think about it we were always told that it is important to tackle inflammation to avoid it progressing and end up in febrile events and other tricky associated scenarios. However, inflammation in its pure sense and in a non-chronic autoimmune patient is a natural and necessary immune response our bodies trigger to refrain an external agent from affecting us. And this is a good thing, right? So why do we jump on to taking antiphlogistics at the very first sign of inflammation? 

My personal take on inflammation in generally healthy people has always been the same as for fever, i.e., let your body control it until you conscientiously recognise your body is either not controlling it adequately or has triggered hyper-reactive control measures. I rarely take any antipiretics if I'm not around 38 Celsius. I always let the body challenge itself. Then when I recognise it's not going to go there on its own, the pharmaceutical is at hands' reach. This is me, please do not use it as clinical guidance. I am not a healthcare professional, I am a professional in medical communications/information and this is solely my personal view as an avid science researcher. For the sake of what is your health and safety follow the advice given to you by your healthcare professionals.

Obligatory disclaimer shared, the remaining question here is actually of a double nature:

1) Is inflammation good or bad?

and

2) When do we know we must tackle the inflammatory process?

I did some literature search on this topic and was able to find some interesting information that is hereby compiled for you.

What is Inflammation?

On its own inflammation is a protocol developed by higher organisms to tackle any foreign agent of developing an invasive strategy that can undermine the stability of the system. In that sense, we humans have developed internal and external barriers that account participation of many agents, from anti-inflammatory foods, to structures like skin, nasal hair, or even mucus.

Being part of the human organism's natural defensive pathways and protective paraphernalia, inflammation is a gradual response process to infection and tissue damage as one of the primary steps of the healing process. When we consider that for producing muscle mass at the gym we need to break the muscle tissue, thus allowing it to grow and then refill it with the new generated cells, the process that encompasses it is inflammation!  But on the other hand, and so well simplified by the website Science-Based Medicine [1], when aging brings about chronic inflammation, the result, among other detrimental losses and consequences, is the cellular damage that can chronically lead to several ailments like the well known atherosclerosis (where plaque composed of fat, cholesterol, calcium ad other molecules build up in the arteries narrowing them overtime) [2] leading to very serious issues like stroke, heart attack, eventually death. There is also the almost universal example of the autoimmune condition rheumatoid arthritis, where the immune system mostly attacks synovial joints, heart and lungs and that results in swelling, stiffness and pain with devastating consequences for the quality of life of the affected patients [3]. 

In what consists the Inflammatory process?

Is Inflammation Good or Bad?

To answer this questions we must visualise an aid motion picture where one is continuously exercising and breaking muscle, not allowing the same any time to heal. Or for example, imagining the immune system sending patrol cells to destroy invaders but prolonging the destruction to such lengths that it wouldn't be even possible to discern anymore who is evil from who is good. Another figurative example can be the use of the water in a swimming pool to put down a lighting match. Unnecessary, is it not?). Water all over the place when you could have done the same with a bit of a glass of water!

Constantly hitting one's cells with a protective army of patrol soldiers can become irritating for one's organism. That is exactly what happens with people when they eat particular foods they are sensitive too, be it lactose, honey, peanuts, you name it. If your body sends out those patrol cells in a normal approach you'd have a mild inflammation and allergic reaction (let's say). If your body is as nervous as Venezuela's Maduro or Turkey's Erdogan, your body would want to send five armies to seek for two little peanut buds and then end up beating up everything they found in the vicinity and further on. And that would progress to a senseless chronic beating up if you don't eventually tackle such unnecessary and unregulated defensive mechanisms with the common sense of an antiphlogistic tablet to refrain the body's immune system's rage.

Overall, inflammation plays a vital role when as a balanced natural response to a disruptive physical imbalance in one's injured organism. However, if one lets it overwork in its functions,  one'll suffer the consequences. And these can be devastating in chronic autoimmune or immunosuppressed patients.

For a list of anti-inflammatory natural products that you can use in your normal diet, please ACCESS HERE, HERE and HERE.

1. Inflammation: Both friend and foe, Science -Based Medicine, [https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/inflammation-both-friend-and-foe/], last visited on the 6th of June 2019, last update on the 27th of December 2011.

[2]. Atherosclerosis, National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute, [https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/atherosclerosis], last visited on the 6th of June 2019, last update unknown.

[3]. Diet and rheumatoid arthritis, The Association of UK Dietitians, [https://www.bda.uk.com/foodfacts/diet_rheumatoid_arthritis], last visited on the 6th of June 2019, last update on September 2018.

Post picture by Cristian Newman on Unsplash.