Inflammation

 

Inflammation refers to your body’s process of fighting against things that harm it, like infections, injuries, and toxins, in an attempt to heal itself. When something damages your cells, your body releases chemicals that trigger a response from your immune system.Inflammation is a symptom of many chronic diseases, such as arthritis or Alzheimer’s disease.

Symptoms

The are two types of chronic inflammation namely acute inflammation and chronic inflammation

  1. Acute inflammation may cause:
  • Flushed skin at the site of the injury.
  • Pain or tenderness.
  • Swelling.
  • Heat.

2. Chronic inflammation symptoms may be harder to spot than acute inflammation symptoms. Signs of chronic inflammation can include:

  • Abdominal pain.
  • Chest pain.
  • Fatigue. (example: systemic lupus)
  • Fever. (example: tuberculosis)
  • Joint pain or stiffness. (example: rheumatoid arthritis)
  • Mouth sores. (example: HIV infection)
  • Skin rash. (example: psoriasis)
Causes

When your body encounters an offending agent (like viruses, bacteria or toxic chemicals) or suffers an injury, it activates your immune system. Your immune system sends out its first responders: inflammatory cells and cytokines (substances that stimulate more inflammatory cells).

These cells begin an inflammatory response to trap bacteria and other offending agents or start healing injured tissue. The result can be pain, swelling, bruising or redness. But inflammation also affects body systems you can’t see.

What is the difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation?

There are two types of inflammation:

  • Acute inflammation: The response to sudden body damage, such as cutting your finger. To heal the cut, your body sends inflammatory cells to the injury. These cells start the healing process.

 

  • Chronic inflammation: Your body continues sending inflammatory cells even when there is no outside danger. For example, in rheumatoid arthritis inflammatory cells and substances attack joint tissues leading to an inflammation that comes and goes and can cause severe damage to joints with pain and deformities.

What conditions are associated with chronic inflammation?

Chronic inflammation is involved in the disease process of many conditions, including:

  • Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Asthma.
  • Cancer.
  • Heart disease.
  • Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
  • Type 2 diabetes
Treatment

Treatment for inflammatory diseases may include medications, rest, exercise, and surgery to correct joint damage. Your treatment plan will depend on several things, including your type of disease, your age, the medications you’re taking, your overall health, and how severe the symptoms are.

The goals of treatment are to:

  • Correct, control, or slow down the disease process
  • Avoid or change activities that aggravate pain
  • Ease pain through pain medications and anti-inflammatory drugs
  • Keep joint movement and muscle strength through physical therapy
  • Lower stress on joints by using braces, splints, or canes as needed
Medication

Many drugs can ease pain, swelling and inflammation. They may also prevent or slow inflammatory disease. Doctors often prescribe more than one. The medications include:

  • Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen)
  • Corticosteroids (such as prednisone)
  • Antimalarial medications (such as hydroxychloroquine)
  • Other medicines known as disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), including azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, leflunomide, methotrexate, and sulfasalazine
  • Biologic drugs such as abatacept, adalimumab, certolizumab, etanercept, infliximab, golimumab, rituximab, and tocilizumab

Some of these are also used to treat conditions such as cancer or inflammatory bowel disease, or to prevent organ rejection after a transplant.

 

But when “chemotherapy” types of medications (such as methotrexate or cyclophosphamide) are used to treat inflammatory diseases, they tend to have lower doses and less risk of side effects than when they’re prescribed for cancer treatment.

If your doctor prescribes any medication, it’s important that you meet with them regularly so they can watch for side effects.

Home remedies

Some ways to ease long-term inflammation include:

  • Quit smoking.
  • Limit how much alcohol you drink.
  • Keep a healthy weight.
  • Manage stress.
  • Get regular physical activity.
  • Try supplements such as omega-3 fatty acids, white willow bark, curcumin, green tea, or capsaicin. Magnesium and vitamins B6, C, D, and E also have some anti-inflammatory effects. Talk with your doctor before starting any supplement.