What Is Inflammation and Why Understanding It Is Important for Good Health

Understanding the detrimental effects of chronic inflammation is important for good health.  Good diet and lifestyle habits are the only way to control this condition.  The dangers of chronic inflammation lead to serious conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  Reducing inflammation can often reverse and sometimes cure these diseases.  That is why it's so important to understand the condition and work to avoid it.

Transcript

 Welcome to the Sisters4prevention Breast Cancer Resource Podcast.  I am your host Judy Fitzgerald and it is my pleasure to bring you the latest survivor strategies and news for the prevention of breast cancer. I am a ten year bi-lateral breast cancer survivor living with NED…No Evidence of Disease and an active advocate for raising awareness of the need for additional research funding for primary prevention breast and ovarian cancer clinical trials.  2021 will an exciting year for breast cancer…it will be the year we will launch the phase I clinical trials for the first preventive breast cancer vaccine.  To read all about it please visit my website….www.sisters4prevention.com. A special thank you and shout out to Feedspot.com for the honor of listing our podcast in the top 35 breast cancer podcasts to follow in 2021.

What Is Inflammation?

Whether you are a cancer survivor or have other major health issues both that you are trying to manage,  understanding inflammation is important. Inflammation is an important part of our body’s immune system. The benefit is that It’s our response or defense mechanism when faced with anything foreign like Illness, infection, injury, microbes, environmental irritants or toxic chemicals.  All of these invaders trigger an inflammatory response.

The immune system is the powerful tool your body uses to keep you healthy.  When you sustain an injury or infection, your immune system sends more white blood cells to the area. Your white blood cells fight off all foreign invaders. As your body heals itself, you will experience evidence of an inflammatory response. Symptoms may include pain, swelling and redness at the site of an injury. If you have an infection, you may experience a fever, pain or chills.

These are the benefits of inflammation. Its protects your body from dangerous organisms or substances.

But…the story of inflammation does not end there. 

When Does Inflammation Become Harmful?

Chronic inflammation can develop when your immune system starts attacking healthy tissues. These attacks cause episodes of inflammation even when your body isn’t injured or sick. Over time, persistent inflammation can damage your organs and tissues.

Research suggests that chronic inflammation causes or worsens symptoms of the following conditions: 

Heart disease

Arthritis

Diabetes

Lung disease

Asthma

Inflammatory bowel disease

Alzheimer’s disease

Autoimmune disorders

Some cancers

Chronic inflammation occurs inside your body and often does not have noticeable symptoms.

So is it possible to reduce the adverse effects of inflammation?  How can we control something which may not have symptoms? When you don’t eat healthy, don’t get enough exercise, or have too much stress, the body responds by triggering inflammation. The key to avoiding this harmful inflammation lies in diet and lifestyle choices.

What does chronic inflammation do to the body?

Early symptoms of chronic inflammation may be vague, with subtle signs and symptoms that may go undetected for a long period. You may just feel slightly fatigued, or even normal. As inflammation progresses, however, it begins to damage your arteries, organs and joints. Left unchecked, it can contribute to chronic diseases, such as heart disease, blood vessel disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions.

Immune system cells that cause inflammation contribute to the buildup of fatty deposits in the lining of the heart’s arteries. These plaques can eventually rupture, which causes a clot to form that could potentially block an artery. 

The most common way to measure inflammation is to conduct a blood test for C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), which is a marker of inflammation. Doctors also measure homocysteine levels to evaluate chronic inflammation. Finally, physicians test for HbA1C — a measurement of blood sugar — to assess damage to red blood cells.

There are many small changes you can gradually adopt to keep your body healthy and avoid inflammation.  These changes are discussed in my podcast series on prevention strategies and on my website:  https://www.sisters4prevention.com/lifestyle-and-diet-prevention-strat 

Thank you for tuning in today.  If you enjoyed this podcast,  please leave me a rating and review on Apple podcasts or on Feedspot.com.  Your feedback is so important to selecting future topics to help navigate the journey of breast cancer.  To stay updated on the latest news about the vaccine clinical trial,  please subscribe to my website www.sisters4prevention.com. 

Please note that the topics discussed on this site in not meant to be used in lieu of medical advice. I am not a medical doctor nor do I claim to be.  I am merely sharing what I have learned from personal experience,   fellow survivors and many hours of research..

For now I’ll leave you with my Mantra:  Cancer is a word not a sentence.

May God Bless you and Keep you till next time.