Chronic Inflammation: The Wild Fire In Your Body
What if the pain, fatigue, or constant bloating you’re experiencing isn’t just stress or aging but a silent fire in your body? In this post, we break down chronic inflammation in the simplest terms. You’ll learn what it is, what causes it, what puts you at risk and the surprising signs your body might be giving you, and most importantly, what you can eat and do to help cool things down.
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What is Chronic Inflammation?
In my previous blog, we explored inflammation and its various types, providing examples of this condition. Today, I will expand more on the not-so-good type of inflammation, chronic inflammation. As earlier mentioned, it is the type of inflammation that persists over several months or even years. I live in Canada, which is one of the countries most affected by wildfires. One of the more alarming phenomena is that of zombie fires, and this is how they occur. After the wildfire season in the summer months, some fires move underground and penetrate deep into the soil, where they hibernate throughout the winter, burning slowly and inconspicuously. In the spring and summer months, when temperatures start rising, they resurface and cause enormous damage. In short, they never really are extinguished. This is how I like to think of chronic inflammation. It is slow, it is subtle and it is dangerous.
What Causes Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation may occur when your body cannot effectively eliminate threats like parasites, fungi, and viruses, or when these invaders keep coming back for repeat attacks.
Breathing in harmful substances over time, such as silica dust common at mining and construction sites, can trigger inflammation when your body's cleanup crew is overwhelmed.
Inside your arteries, "bad" cholesterol can accumulate and form hardened plaques that narrow your blood vessels, creating another hotspot for chronic inflammation.
In autoimmune disorders, your immune system gets confused and starts attacking your own healthy tissues as if they were dangerous invaders. This misdirected assault leads to conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
What Puts You at Risk
While you can't always control the underlying causes, you can identify the risk factors that increase your odds of developing chronic inflammation. These factors include
Age: As we get older, our bodies naturally build up more harmful chemicals called free radicals. Imagine your body is like a kitchen, cooking (digesting food, making energy) creates smoke (free radicals) and normally, a fan (your antioxidants) clears the smoke. But over time, that fan slows down, and the smoke starts to damage the kitchen.
Obesity: Fat tissue releases hormones and chemicals that can keep your body in a state of low-level inflammation.
Diet: Eating a lot of greasy or sugary food can raise bad cholesterol and lower the good kind. This pushes your body to produce more inflammation, especially if you're already overweight.
Stress & Poor Sleep: When you're stressed or not sleeping well, your blood vessels don’t get a chance to relax like they should at night. This keeps them tense and inflamed.
Smoking: Smoking lowers the body's natural anti-inflammatory defences, making it easier for inflammation to take hold.
Low Sex Hormones: Hormones like estrogen and testosterone help keep your immune system balanced. When these hormone levels drop, inflammation can creep up. Keeping them in a healthy range (with good nutrition, exercise, and sleep) may help reduce long-term inflammation.
So, Do You Have Chronic Inflammation?
Unlike acute inflammation, chronic inflammation can smoulder quietly for years. Some signs can be vague and easy to ignore:
Fatigue
Brain fog
Body aches
Mild digestive issues
Low-grade fever
Feeling “under the weather” more days than not
It is therefore important to consult your physician if you have a combination of the risk factors and the above signs, as it may not be easily diagnosed. A combination of physical symptoms, a medical history and blood tests may be the key to discovering if you have chronic inflammation or not
What You Can Do: Lifestyle Tips to Reduce Chronic Inflammation
Food: Eat more anti-inflammatory foods (leafy greens, berries, turmeric, etc.)
Move: Daily physical activity. Even walking helps
Rest: Prioritize sleep
Relax: Stress management tools (breathing, meditation, hobbies)
Avoid: Smoking, excess alcohol, sugar, ultra-processed food
Final Thoughts
As with many things, Chronic inflammation builds over time, and so does the healing. Small changes in diet and daily routines can exponentially compound to create profound shifts in how your body functions and feels.
These sources helped me with my blog
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4666828/