07/27/2023
Inflammation is a really frustrating term to me because it’s oversimplifying a very complex process. Like with most things, adequately treating inflammation relies on fully understanding what’s actually happening.
This is still oversimplifying it, but oxidative stress (very reactive molecules) come into contact with tissues causing damage. Anything that causes damage will start the same cascade though, so infection and mechanical damage count too! The immune system senses this damage and sends white blood cells (particularly neutrophils and monocytes) to fix it. Then what is supposed to happen is these white blood cells create their own anti-inflammatory chemicals or cytokines that create something called resolvins which resolve the inflammation and clean it up.
But sometimes this doesn’t happen, and you can get stuck on the right half of this graphic. The white blood cells die before they finish their job and create more oxidative stress, or inflammatory cytokines, which create more white blood cell infiltration and damage. A vicious circle begins.
Our job is to identify which part of this pathway needs help, and it’s usually the white blood cells that are key! Another important part of this is impacting the initators of this process, or what started the initial damage.
A more detailed explanation of this process can be found on my website in the blog titled “What IS inflammation?”.
Do you have chronic inflammation? Let me know below!
- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.
References
CD4 T cells: Fates, functions, and faults. Blood. 2008 Sep 1;112(5):1557-69, Zhu J, Paul WE
