What is inflammation?

Inflammation is your body’s natural immune system response to foreign invaders, like toxins, bacteria, viruses, and physical damage.  In moderation, inflammation is a good thing. When you get a cut or bruise, inflammation is your body’s way of detecting the problem, communicating the appropriate response, to its immune system players and carrying it out. This is how your body is healed.

You wouldn’t survive if it wasn’t for inflammation.

There are TWO main types of inflammation:

• Short term inflammatory process is called acute inflammation

• Chronic inflammation persists and is an unhealthy response of the immune system

Acute

Good Inflammation that does the job and then quits

Acute

You are picking up fire wood on your camping trip and inadvertently get a splinter lodged in your hand. Your immune system is set up to recognize that a foreign object has gone through your skin. You get a pimple which is just a bunch of white blood cells that have come to the rescue to get rid of that threat.

You now know that you’ve got a splinter and you get your tweezers and remove the splinter!

The body releases inflammatory compounds…which cause the increased blood flow - thus redness, swelling, pain and warmth.

Once the splinter is removed, your finger can heal.

Or: you successfully fight the latest round of colds going around the office or your classroom (if you are a teacher).

Chronic Inflammation

Bad Inflammation

Chronic

Sometimes your immune system gets confused.

• You become hypersensitive or allergic to foods or to chemicals.

• Your immune system gets diverted and doesn’t go after the mutant cells and you develop some kind of cancer

• You’re the one at work that is always getting the flu that is going around.

• You are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease

In this case, the inflammatory process doesn’t turn off and it taxes your immune system so that it can’t do its job of fighting infection, getting rid of cancer cells, protecting the body from toxins, and knowing friend from foe. Your immune system may mistakenly tag a food, a good microbe or your own body’s tissue as a foe that needs to be attacked. This exacerbates an already inflamed body.