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[LifeStyle] The truth about inflammation: all you need to know about 2023’s hottest health topic, from causes to cures


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To understand what can go wrong with our bodies, it helps to remember that they haven’t evolved much since we were hunting and gathering a few thousand years ago. Our greedy response to sugar, for instance, worked well when we could only get it from wild berries; now that it’s combined with salt and fat into foods we can’t stop eating, it can be a problem. Or consider our stress response: if the only time your body reroutes resources from the immune system to your fight-or-flight system is during the occasional sabre-toothed tiger attack, that’s fine. If every mean tweet, upsetting headline or twinge of worry about the mortgage sends your systems into panic mode, your body never gets a chance to recuperate.

Inflammation, one of the least understood and most debated topics in health, works a bit like this. There are hundreds of cookbooks that promise to deliver an “anti-inflammatory diet”, with supplements, gels, teas, workouts, saunas and cryotherapy chambers offering the possibility of even more dramatic results. But inflammation, at its core, is a vital part of the body’s immune response – not something to try to eliminate. It is a complex biological process that occurs when the body detects harmful stimuli and its purpose is to protect you and kickstart healing. Sometimes this process gets out of control, leading to chronic inflammation that damages rather than heals. The tricky part? Our understanding of this process is evolving: there is a chance that, if you tweak your knee on a five-a-side pitch, you will still be given medical advice that was flipped on its head a decade ago.

So how much do we really know about inflammation – and when should you let it work its magic?

What is inflammation for?

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Inflammation is the immune system’s response to any traumatic event in the body tissues – from a demanding workout to a scraped knee to a bout of flu. Your immune system releases white blood cells to protect the area, and you will probably experience some redness, warmth and swelling in the affected spot – occasionally with soreness and pain where the process stimulates nerves. When you are injured, this happens in the affected spot. When you have flu, swelling and pain occur in the respiratory system, but might also contribute to the muscle and joint pain or headaches you experience.

Nearly every disease is associated with some disorder of inflammation, and it’s considered a key part of ageing
Tim Spector
“This is acute inflammation – it’s part of our defence system, and we all have it, happening in varying degrees and duration depending on what has caused it in the first place,” says Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London. “It’s only a problem when it goes wrong, usually by overreacting in some way.” Crucially, though, acute inflammation is usually what you want to happen, and trying to prevent it might cause even more problems. We’ll come back to this.

What is going wrong?
Chronic inflammation is more of a worry. This happens when the body continues to send white blood cells on the attack in the absence of any threat. This disrupts normal bodily functions and can result in healthy tissues and organs being attacked. Autoimmune disease can bring it about, and so can foreign agents entering the body: it could be a serious problem, even if it’s not immediately evident.

link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jun/27/the-truth-about-inflammation-all-you-need-to-know-about-2023s-hottest-health-topic-from-causes-to-cures

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