What is Inflammation? (Part One)
Anything within our digestive tract, from mouth to stomach to bowel, is considered an external substance. The digestive system carefully breaks down what is healthy to allows favorable substances, like nutrients and proteins, to be absorbed into the body the small intestine. What is not wanted is removed from the digestive system as waste. Unavoidably, foreign substances will sneak their way inside. It is the responsibility of the immune system to destroy foreign substances, which includes viruses, pathogens, chemicals, etc. Its the job of a strong immunes systems keeps the body healthy and protected.
What happens when the immune system becomes confused? For some, the immune system mistake something natural or healthy as a foreign invader. Autoimmune diseases and allergies are an overaction of the immune system towards something it mistakenly considers foreign or harmful.
Inflammation occurs whenever the immune system goes on the defense. According to Pub Med Health, inflammation causes redness, swelling, loss of function, and pain. Inflammation is visible when it is protecting the body from an infection on a skin wound. Fluid is carried to the inflamed tissue by the defense cells, causing swelling. Inflammation increases permeability of narrow blood vessels to allow more defense cells to the site an infection to assist in the fight against foreign invaders. Loss of function happens when organs become inflamed. This is evident when someone loses their sense of smell during a cold, has difficulty breathing during Bronchitis, or has restricted movement from Rheumatoid arthritis.
There are two kinds of inflammation, acute and chronic. Acute last for a few minutes or hours, while chronic inflammation lasts for day or longer. Signs of acute inflammation is often more pronounced than chronic inflammation, but often chronic inflammation more often occurs when there has been greater injury to cells. To learn more about the differences of acute and chronic inflammation. we suggest this article published by John Hopkins University.
Inflammation is beneficial when the immune system is protecting the body from harmful substances. Othertimes, chronic inflammation can cause disease and drain the body of its resources and energy. Chronic inflammation occurs when the body fights against its own cells by mistake. The consequence of chronic inflammation include poor health and chronic illness. According to Harvard Health Publications, “many major diseases that plague us—including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, and Alzheimer’s—have been linked to chronic inflammation.”
Examples of chronic inflammation include crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. These result from chronic inflammation of the bowel. Rheumatoid arthritis is the chronic inflammation of the limbs and psoriasis is from chronic inflammation of the skin.
Clearly, chronic inflammation should be avoided. Researchers are still learning about the causes and effects of chronic inflammation. What we do know is the chronic inflammation lowers general health and can be treated, at least in part, by healthy eating habits. To learn ways to decrease chronic inflammation through food, read our second article, ‘Ways to Lower Inflammation’ in our series on the causes and effects of inflammation.
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