How Inflammation Affects Your Health

Inflammation is your body's natural response to injury or infection. The typical signs of inflammation -- redness, heat, swelling and pain -- occur because of invisible processes in your body. Injured cells give off chemical signals that attract immune cells and antibodies to the injured area. Blood vessels in the area dilate, which increases blood flow. It also increases filtration -- the migration of fluid from the blood vessels into your tissues. This is what causes swelling. Increased blood flow causes the redness and heat. The pain is caused by pressure on local nerves from the excess tissue fluid.

White blood cells swarm to the injured area, make their way out of the blood vessels and into the injured tissues. The first immune cells to reach the area are neutrophils, which eat/destroy harmful cells. They are followed by monocytes and macrophages, larger and stronger than neutrophils. As the immune cells clean up the damage, fiber from the bloodstream makes its way into your tissues to start rebuilding. The lymphatic system absorbs excess tissue fluid, harmful microorganisms, white blood cells, damaged cells and more, taking it all to be cleansed in your lymph nodes.

Acute inflammation might be uncomfortable, but it is definitely beneficial to your health. It protects your body. Chronic inflammation, however, is not normal and not beneficial. Chronic inflammation eventually damages healthy tissues and organs, especially tissues such as neurons and cardiac cells that don't heal as easily as skin. Chronic inflammation occurs when the monocytes and macrophages don't give up once an injury or infection has healed. They attack healthy tissue instead. Diseases such as asthma, pneumonia, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, laryngitis, gingivitis, gastritis, otitis, diverticulitis and inflammatory bowel disease are inflammatory diseases.

Other diseases that aren't caused by inflammation can trigger chronic inflammation, such as obesity, atherosclerosis, diabetes and cancer. Belly fat in particular can cause chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation can lead to osteoarthritis, according to the Stanford University of Medicine. Persistent irritants such as asbestos can lead to chronic inflammation and damage to your organs.

What can you do to try to prevent chronic inflammation?  According to the Linus Pauling Institute, diets that are high in saturated fat and high glycemic foods stimulate inflammation. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains which includes healthy oils such as olive or walnut oil can reduce inflammation, because by its nature this diet is low in cholesterol, high in fiber, and rich in healthy fatty acids from nuts, seeds and fish, as well as antioxidants from colorful fruits and vegetables.

Other factors that can trigger chronic inflammation are smoking and excessive exercise. Exercise is important to health, but excessive exercise leads to injuries and breaks down the body, rather than building it up.

So, some of the factors that trigger chronic inflammation are within your control: weight loss if necessary, a healthy diet, moderate exercise and abandoning unhealthy habits like smoking. It isn't necessarily easy to take charge of these habits, but it is vital to your health.

University of Utah: Inflammation
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/ss07/inflammation.html
Osteoarthritis results from inflammatory process, not just wear and tear, study suggests