How acute inflammation turns chronic
Chronic inflammation may sound like a complicated medical term, but it touches many of us more than we realize. It can quietly undermine your health, surfacing through subtle symptoms like fatigue, joint pain, and digestive trouble.
Causes of chronic inflammation
Chronic inflammation often begins when your body's natural response to a problem - an infection or injury - fails to switch off the way it should. It can develop in several ways. One possibility: the threat lingers because the body cannot rid itself of the offending substance, whether an infectious organism, an irritant, or a chemical toxin. The immune system is good at eliminating invaders, but some pathogens resist even our best defenses, hiding in tissues and provoking the inflammatory response again and again.
Another scenario: the immune system shifts into "threat mode" when no real threat exists. In an autoimmune disorder, it becomes overly sensitized to the body's own healthy cells and tissues, reacting against joints, intestines, or other organs as if they were dangerous. As the inflammation continues, it damages the body instead of healing it.
Unhealthy lifestyle choices can also drive ongoing inflammation. Smoking, being sedentary, and eating a diet heavy in processed foods and refined carbohydrates all contribute. That ongoing inflammation raises the risk of many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Signs and symptoms of chronic inflammation
The signs of chronic inflammation are far less obvious than those of acute inflammation - no sharp twinge as when you cut yourself, no swelling or redness to alert you. It can be widespread or confined to specific areas. Symptoms associated with chronic inflammation include:
Fatigue and low energy
Depression and anxiety
Muscle aches and joint pain
Constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal complaints
Changes in weight or appetite
Headaches
A "fuzzy" mental state, often called brain fog.
