Inflammation is the body's way of responding to things that can cause harm, such as injury or infection. It is a complex process involving many different chemicals. The body initiates this process in an attempt to protect and heal itself.
When inflammation is helpful
While our planet is profoundly beautiful, it can also be dangerous. Our bodies are exposed to a multitude of harmful bacteria, viruses, and toxic chemicals every day. The body has an impressive array of defense mechanisms to protect us from these dangers and inflammation is one of its most useful tools. As an important biological function of our immune system, inflammation protects us from harm and keeps us healthy. Inflammation can stop infection, clear toxic substances, and seal off and heal open wounds. You will know your body is responding with inflammation by spotting one of the five major signs of acute inflammation: redness, swelling, heat, pain, and loss of function. Although these symptoms may be uncomfortable, they are essential to our survival. In fact, without inflammation, we would be dead pretty quickly - wounds would fester and infections would rapidly become life-threatening. Think of some common incidents - a paper cut, a bump on the knee, eating lukewarm seafood at a dodgy-looking buffet; in these situations, the body instantly mounts an inflammatory response to rectify the situation and keep you safe. Your immune system works hard for you every day, responding to danger, helping you to heal and prevent minor issues from escalating into major threats. Imagine your immune system as an army and inflammation as its weapon. Within an army, there are many different roles - sniper, demolitions expert, tank commander, and so on. This is much like the immune system, except the personnel are white blood cells, antibodies, histamine, complement proteins and messaging molecules called cytokines (which can either be pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory). These troops are stationed throughout your body waiting on standby. After an initial stimulus, such as invasion of harmful bacteria, the troops are mobilized to launch an attack. White blood cells are usually first to the scene and can ambush in a variety of ways: some attack germs or damaged cells directly, some produce antibodies and some secrete inflammatory cytokines that ramp up the inflammatory process. Once the threat has been neutralized and there is no longer any danger, the troops will leave the area and balance will be restored. This process is called acute inflammation, which the body aims to resolve as quickly as possible to limit any collateral damage.
How inflammation affects the body
Here are some examples of how inflammation affects various parts of the body.
Cardiovascular system
Chronic inflammation is recognized as the main driving force behind the development of atherosclerosis. A sustained level of inflammation can encourage plaque formation and trigger blood clots, both of which can significantly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Brain
The brain is separated from the immune system by the blood-brain barrier, a tightly packed layer of cells that lines the blood vessels to the brain. The brain does, however, have its own immune system, called the neuroimmune system, which protects the brain from foreign cells, toxic chemicals, and infection. When the neuroimmune system responds to a harmful stimulus, inflammation occurs in the brain and central nervous system. Ongoing inflammation can increase the risk of depression, anxiety and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Muscle
Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in the human body. Cytokines (signaling molecules that stimulate or dampen an inflammatory response) play an important role in the synthesis and breakdown of muscle tissue. An excess of inflammatory cytokines, causing chronic inflammation, can result in muscle wastage. The balance can be skewed by many factors, especially age. Chronic inflammation is a key factor in the development of sarcopenia, and age-related degenerative condition characterized by loss of muscle mass, strength and function.
Bones
Osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become brittle, has been attributed to various hormonal, nutritional, and metabolic factors, including vitamin D and calcium deficiency, low levels of sex hormones (such as low estrogen in post-menopausal women), thyroid problems and a sedentary lifestyle. Research suggests that inflammation also exerts significant influence on bone regeneration. Certain pro-inflammatory cytokines have been implicated in the regulation of bone turnover and it is thought that chronic inflammation is a key risk factor for osteoporosis and other bone conditions.
Skin
The skin is an important first line of defense against harmful microbes and toxins. When the skin's immune system becomes overactive and chronic inflammation develops, various inflammatory skin diseases, such as psoriasis, rosacea and eczema may develop.
Lungs
Chronic inflammation the lung area can lead to breathing problems, and conditions, such as asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease. Chronic inflammation in the airways can be triggered by several factors, including cigarette smoke, air pollutants and imbalances in the lung microbiota.
Thyroid
Hashimoto's thyroiditis is the most common thyroid disorder, affecting millions of people globally. Hashimoto's is characterized by chronic inflammation of the thyroid gland. This leads to progressive destruction of thyroid tissue and results in an under-active thyroid. Chronic inflammation can also inhibit several genes involved in thyroid hormone metabolism, which can result in altered thyroid hormone production, such as decreased thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) and increased reverse T3, which can lead to an under-active thyroid (hypothyroidism).
Gut
The gut houses 70% of the cells that make up our immune system and plays a very important role in defending us from pathogens and toxins that we ingest on a daily basis. There are many factors that can trigger chronic inflammation in the gut, including intestinal permeability (also called leaky gut syndrome), food sensitivities and disruptions in the gut microbiota. Chronic inflammation of the gut can lead to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease).
Kidneys
Chronic inflammation is a hallmark feature of kidney disease. High levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation in the bloodstream, appear to accompany reduced renal function and chronic kidney disease (CKO), the most common form of kidney disease.
Reproductive system
Research indicates that chronic inflammation may be a key factor in reproductive dysfunction. Chronic inflammation can exacerbate conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis. Inflammation affects many components needed for reproduction and is a major cause of infertility in both men and women.
Root causes of inflammation
What causes our immune system to stay in battle mode? Why does something intended to help us cause such chaos?
Chronic inflammation occurs as a result of the immune system responding to a continual, unresolved threat. This prevents the completion of the healing process and allows inflammation to run riot. There are a multitude of different triggers that can cause the immune system to go into overdrive and cause chronic inflammation. These include:
- Diet
- Blood sugar issues and insulin resistance
- Stress
- Infection
- Gut issues
- Toxins
- Genes
- Lifestyle factors such as smoking, excess alcohol intake and lack of exercise.
Diet
Food contains potent chemical messengers. Every bite you take can either send your body positive messages that inspire health and vitality or send danger signals that trigger the immune system to respond with inflammation.
Modern diets are one of the main reasons we experience so much inflammation, and processed foods are the major culprits. These items are full of sugar, refined fats, preservatives, colorings, and all sorts of weird and not-so-wonderful ingredients to enhance the flavor and prolong shelf life. The top three inflammatory foods are sugar, refined fats and oils, and artificial sweeteners.
Sugar
Eating too much sugar is a sure-fire way to induce inflammation. Excess intake has been linked to insulin resistance, weight gain, tooth decay, damage to the gut lining and a reduction in the diversity of your gut bacteria, all of which can trigger and perpetuate a cycle of chronic inflammation.
Refined fats and oils
Fats are delicate and quickly become damaged when exposed to heat, light, or chemicals. Consuming damaged, refined fats creates oxidative stress in the body. Oxidative stress can result in widespread inflammation and occurs when there is an imbalance between free radicals (unstable atoms that can damage cells) and antioxidants.
Refined oils are mainstay of processed foods and are often used in restaurant cooking. When reading a food label, you will know the product contains processed fats if you see words such as "refined vegetable oil", "hydrogenated", "partially hydrogenated", or "margarine". You can also spot a refined oil if the label lists the oil but doesn't include the term "extra virgin" or "cold-pressed".
Look out for industrial seed oils, which are highly inflammatory and bear no resemblance to natural fats. These include corn, soybean, rapeseed/canola, cottonseed, safflower, and sunflower oil. These oils are exposed to extremely high temperatures, then processed with chemicals to improve the color and taste.
Industrial seed oils have only been a part of our diet since the early 1900s and became widespread once companies became aware of their low cost and long shelf life. They have been cleverly marketed and their ability to cause harm has not received nearly as much attention as sugar. When you start reading labels and getting curious, you will be shocked to see how much they have infiltrated our food supply.
Artificial sweeteners
Used in many foods to improve taste, especially in those labeled "diet" or "light", artificial sweeteners include acesulfame, aspartame, neotame, saccharin and sucralose. Although they don't contain sugar, these ingredients can cause as much, if not more, metabolic dysfunction, which can lead to inflammation and increase your risk for conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Many people opt for products with artificial sweeteners to reduce their calorie intake, but this approach can backfire. One study, spanning seven years, found that regular consumption of artificially sweetened drinks doubled the risk of obesity. Also of concern is the impact that sweeteners can have on our gut microbiota (the ecosystem of bacteria and other microbes that live in the gut). Studies have shown that the consumption of artificial sweeteners can negatively affect the composition and function of gut microbiota. This is important as imbalances in our gut microbiota can lead to inflammation.
Blood sugar and insulin resistance
How well we balance our blood sugar levels plays a large role in our level of inflammation. Most people eat a diet that is high in the foods that drive up blood sugar levels. Our bodies hate having elevated blood sugar levels and have sophisticated systems in place to maintain the right level. The complications of poorly or never managed diabetes - kidney failure and even limb amputation - indicate just how toxic raised blood sugar can be.
The main dietary factors that increase blood sugar levels are sugar and the over-consumption of simple or refined carbohydrates (such as white bread, chips, potato crisps, biscuits, many breakfast cereals, desserts, and so on), which break down into sugars. If simple carbohydrates and sugar take center stage in your diet, this can lead to elevated blood sugar levels and, over time, insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can also be driven by stress and lack of exercise.
What is insulin resistance?
When you eat a meal containing carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels start to rise. In response to this, insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, is released. Insulin then travels through the bloodstream acting as a doorman, knocking on the door of your cells, and telling them to open up and let in the sugars (glucose). Once insulin has done its job and the sugars have been taken up by your cells to be used as fuel or stored as fat, blood sugar levels fall back to normal.
If your blood sugar levels go too high too often, your cells can stop responding to insulin properly. Insulin will knock on the door, but the cells won't answer, and glucose won't be able to get into the cell. This is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to chronically elevated blood sugar and symptoms such as fatigue and carbohydrate cravings because your cells lack an energy source. The pancreas responds to the high blood sugar levels by secreting more insulin, which in turn leads to chronically elevated insulin levels. Insulin resistance is one of the main drivers of chronic inflammation.
Infection
A lingering infection can be a big trigger for inflammation and can quietly fan the flames for months or even years. Some examples include dental infections, persistent viral infections, candida overgrowth. Lyme disease and its co-infections, sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia, parasites, and many different types of harmful or opportunistic bacteria, fungi and mold that can get a foothold in the gut and other parts of the body. If there is an infectious cause behind chronic inflammation, tracking it down and treating it is essential to turning off the inflammatory response.
Dental infections can be particularly troublesome. There is large body of research linking oral infection such as gum disease (periodontitis) with the initiation and progression of several conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This is because the infection spreads from the oral cavity to other parts of the body, triggering systemic inflammation.
Root canals are also important to consider, as they can act as a reservoir for infection long after the root canal procedure has been completed. The lingering presence of bacteria in the root canal, as well as the harmful toxins these bacteria can produce, can be powerful drivers of inflammation.
Stress
When stress dominates our lives and we lack the resources to cope, we are setting ourselves up for inflammation. The causes of stress are different for everyone. For one person, it may be a high-powered job combined with an intense exercise regime without adequate rest and nourishment as a counterbalance. For another, it may be a toxic relationship, money worries or loneliness. Stress causes inflammation by increasing the production of stress hormones and pro-inflammatory cytokines and by raising blood sugar levels and decreasing insulin sensitivity.
Gut issues
The gastrointestinal system is a marvel of biology. Your gut is able to take external matter, process it through a carefully orchestrated symphony of digestive processes, and end up with tiny molecules that can be used to power every cell. It is home to 70% of your immune system and is in constant dialogue with your brain through the communication highway known as the vagus nerve.
The microbiota in your gut comprise an incredible ecosystem of tens of trillions of microorganisms. It's a mutually symbiotic relationship - we give them a home, and in exchange they do several important jobs, including keeping harmful microbes at bay and producing valuable nutrients such as short-chain fatty acids, B vitamins and vitamin K. They also synthesize neurotransmitters, such as serotonin gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and dopamine, all of which play a key role in mood (who would have thought that bacteria could bring happiness?!).
Our guts are under attack from poor diet, antibiotics, stress, over-use of certain drugs such as painkillers (especially non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen), alcohol and smoking. These factors compromise our digestive function and significantly disrupt the health and diversity of our microbiota. Consequently, more people than ever are suffering from conditions such as acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. Research has linked damage to the microbiome with the initiation and progression of many inflammatory diseases such as colorectal cancer, Crohn's disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis.
Toxins
Our environment is becoming increasingly toxic - in the air we breathe, the food we eat and what we put on our skin. Some of the biggest concerns are pesticides, pollution, heavy metals and chemicals in plastics, cosmetics, and home-cleaning products.
From an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies are well equipped to deal with toxins, both from our environment and from the metabolic by-product of our bodies' own internal processes. The body has sophisticated methods of detoxing and eliminating harmful toxins. However, as our environment becomes more toxic, our bodies are struggling to keep up.
Persistent, low-level exposure to toxins has a highly destructive effect on our ability to function - our body must use precious resources (such as antioxidants and vitamins) to neutralize and eliminate toxins. If our body is overwhelmed or lacks the resources to eliminate certain toxins (such as mercury leached from amalgam fillings or BPA from plastic containers), harmful toxins will start to build up. A high toxic load can drive and perpetuate chronic inflammation.
The good news is that you can shield yourself by changing your consumer habits. This is important not only to preserve your health, but to nurture the natural ecosystems that are suffering as a result of our use of toxic chemicals.
Genes
Many genes have been identified as having the potential to drive chronic inflammation that leads to disease (for example, inheriting mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can increase your risk for breast cancer). But having a certain gene or mutation doesn't mean that disease is inevitable.
In the twentieth century, the groundbreaking field of epigenetics showed how environmental factors can determine how our genes are expressed (turned on or off). This changed things irrevocably. We used to think that genes were our destiny, but now we understand genes are only responsible for about 10% of disease. The other 90% is due to internal and external factors which have collectively been dubbed the "exposome".
The exposome is a measure of all exposures, such as diet, toxins, lifestyle factors and social behaviors, that can influence our genes and our biology. This means we have a huge influence on our genes, and whether or not they manifest disease.
Lifestyle factors
Lifestyle factors such as smoking, excess alcohol intake and lack of exercise can seriously impact your health, creating internal disruption that elevates your risk of chronic disease.
Cigarette smoke contains over 7,700 chemical compounds, including arsenic, cadmium, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde. Electronic cigarettes, or "vapes", touted as a healthy alternative, contain an array of harmful chemicals such as propylene glycol, the same ingredient found in antifreeze. Exposure to these chemicals can inflame the body and accelerate your risk of chronic disease, especially cancer.
Physical inactivity also poses a major threat to our health. Extended periods of sitting have been associated with an increased risk of chronic disease, and also have a negative impact on circulation, lymphatic drainage, and posture.
Many people are now transitioning to standing desks, exercising more often, and recognizing the benefits of regular "movement breaks" throughout the day to counteract the negative effects of being too sedentary.