INFLAMMATION 101

Understanding Inflammation

A Link to Other Diseases

Some of the most damaging inflammation in the body isn’t caused by germs, injuries, or old age, but another threat altogether. Elizabeth Retzer, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital, in Illinois, says the standard American lifestyle–too much processed food and stress, not enough sleep and exercise–can cause an immune reaction associated with significant medical outcomes, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.

Many of these chronic conditions are also liked to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and even death. According to the NIH, chronic inflammatory diseases are the most common cause of death in the world, and many experts think the prevalence of inflammation-associated diseases in the United States will continue to increase for the next 30 years.

Genetics has an impact on the development of many conditions, but the cause of some inflammatory diseases boils down to controllable lifestyle choices. Factors like an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle, an abundance of stress, and too little sleep can trigger “oxidative stress,” in which there’s an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body. This causes the immune system to respond with inflammation. The problem, Dr. Retzer says, is there’s no specific illness for the immune system to fight, so the body ends up targeting normal cells. The inflammation cycle snowballs when the body attempts to repair the cells it’s damaging.

Some patients with high inflammation may have specific but often subtle symptoms. The NIH lists muscle and joint pain, fatigue and insomnia, weight loss or gain, depression and anxiety, gastrointentional complications, and frequent infections as indicators of chronic inflammation. But it’s easy to brush off these vague symptoms until it’s too late.

“When I talk to patients, usually they tell me they feel more fatigued and achy, just a general slowing down which they often attribute to aging,” Dr. Retzer says. People often don’t realize they have chronic inflammation until they have a bigger problem like high blood sugar, high blood pressure, obesity, or high cholesterol or worse, a life-threatening medical condition.