Why we need to change our view on inflammation
By Paul Bolger. Chartered Physiotherapist at Nano Physiotherapy, Kilkenny (www.nanophysio.ie).
What is the first thing that you think of when you think of inflammation? You might think of pain, redness, swelling and heat – the cardinal signs of inflammation in our bodies. But do you think about protection, healing and health?
Inflammation, driven by our immune system, plays a key role in keeping us alive and healthy. It is vital for healthy healing and for fending off infection and disease. Yes, it can be associated with health problems, but, like most things in life, a balance is important.
Inflammation the Protector
Our immune system, as we know, protects us. One branch of our immune system, called the ‘innate immune system’, is ancient and is seen in a wide variety of living things – even plants have innate immune responses.
If there is something in our body that should not be there (e.g. certain viruses, bacteria, etc.), our innate immune response allows us to spot them and signal to the immune system to send in more cells to deal with the intruder (like the cell in the picture here). Inflammation occurs as part of this immune response – helping us to fight off the potential infection.
Anyone with allergies knows what it is like when our immune system becomes overly protective and reacts to things that would not cause us harm (like pollen or nuts).
Inflammation the Healer
Inflammation is the first step in the healing process. When cells are damaged in our body, such as with injury, molecules spill from the damaged cells into the surrounding tissue. Some of these molecules act like signals that attract the attention of the immune system.
An inflammatory response ensues. During this inflammatory response, damaged cells and particles are cleared out and removed by immune cells – tidying and trimming of the injured area. This clears the way for new, healthy cells and tissue to be laid down. This trimming and clearing process is vital for healthy and robust healing to take place.
In fact, it is a bad idea to take anti-inflammatory medication in the first few days following some injuries as their use has been found to disrupt the normal, healthy healing process.
Inflammation increases the level of pain that we experience – causing us to take strain off the injured area temporarily while it heals and recovers. Enhancing its protective properties.
Inflammation Gone Wrong
Having a strong inflammatory response is needed to fight off infections and heal following injury. When we are not under threat, ideally, we want the levels of inflammation in our bodies to drop back to normal levels. Issues arise when levels of inflammation in our bodies are elevated above their normal levels on a long-term basis.
If our inflammation is heightened when we are not under threat, this might be called ‘chronic systemic inflammation’ or ‘long-term inflammation’. This can cause trouble in the long-run, seriously increasing the risk of a wide-range of health problems – including dementia, heart disease, diabetes, depression, osteoarthritis and auto-immune diseases.
The good news is that there is plenty that we can do, individually and as a society, to promote a healthy inflammatory balance, leaving our immune system in good working order to do what it does best – protect us from harm.
We will explore this further in the coming weeks.
