Inflammatory state in the body - enemy or ally?

Lately, we have been hearing more and more about the increase in chronic diseases. In this context, the term "chronic inflammatory state" often arises. It is declined in all cases, and it is attributed as the main causative factor in most of these troubles.

But what is an inflammatory state really? What are its different forms? Is it our threat? Our specialist, Wojciech Sankiewicz, will answer these questions and many more in our latest video. We encourage you to watch it.

So, starting from the very beginning, thinking of our body as a system, an ideal structure free from any errors, whose goal is to survive as long as possible while remaining as efficient as possible, let's realize that inflammation is highly desirable for us. It provides information to our immune system about the threat and the need for intervention.

Let's imagine two situations.

First: While preparing a salad, we accidentally cut our finger while peeling an onion. Blood starts to trickle gently from this small wound. Our natural reflex is to put our finger under water. After a minute, the blood starts to clot and the wound closes. If not for the immune system's reaction that was activated thanks to the inflammatory response that occurred immediately after the cut, the blood would continue to trickle for several days, leading to a situation where we could die from bleeding or from an infection that could have entered the small wound during that time.

The second situation in which inflammation saves our lives is a common flu. When we are infected with the flu virus, inflammation is activated, acting as an alarm system that triggers our immune system to take action. And if it weren't for inflammation, our body would not be aware of the existing threat and would not react appropriately.

These two examples I mentioned relate to the acute inflammatory response, which is activated in sudden situations threatening our health or life. However, things become more complicated when dealing with less serious threats.

Let's go back to the virus example. Let's imagine that an attack by a virus on our body is somehow equivalent to a foreign superpower declaring war and launching a conventional attack by sending troops to our territory. If such a situation were to occur in our country, all state structures, the entire social life, and the entire economy would be focused on fighting the enemy in order to survive. However, if things took a different turn and there was no official war or conventional attack by foreign troops, but instead, we experienced regular acts of sabotage of various kinds, such as poisoning water in one place, setting food supplies on fire in another, or kidnapping a minor government official, our society would be more or less aware of what is happening, but life would continue normally and only specific agencies would deal with neutralizing the threats.

However, even though life would go on relatively normally, we all understand that a state cannot function efficiently if such situations were to occur repeatedly for forty or fifty years. Everyone would suffer, and eventually, the state would collapse.

Using this analogy, let's go back to inflammation. In a life-threatening situation, inflammation is responsible for mobilizing the necessary support, that is, the immune system, proportionate to the threat. And chronic inflammation, which is often associated with all these civilization diseases, is a state in which some small threat arises, for example, we smoke a cigarette. The immune system starts to act, sending a special forces unit to intervene. The rest of the body is unaware that such an action is taking place and the problem is resolved. However, immediately after this intervention, the special forces unit receives a call for another intervention because we drank beer and had chips with it. During this intervention, we inhale smog, so the immune system has to engage another unit in the fight. Let's not forget that we are overweight, our blood sugar levels are constantly elevated, so several more units are constantly fighting. This state is called chronic inflammation, the chronic activation of the immune system that has no time to rest.

Additionally, since the immune system is constantly active, a part of the sympathetic nervous system, which affects the fight-or-flight response, is also active, which disrupts the balance between fight-or-flight and rest mode, resulting in constant fatigue, lack of energy, and motivation. So, as we can see, chronic inflammation is part of a vicious circle of all our problems.

So what can we do to control our chronic inflammation? I believe the answer is quite simple. We could look for sophisticated techniques to reduce chronic inflammation, but the most important and effective method is prevention. Therefore, we should quit smoking, even e-cigarettes, as soon as possible. We should limit alcohol consumption to special occasions like our daughter's wedding, and even then, drink in moderation. We should stop eating processed foods full of sugars and trans fats, and also reduce the consumption of conventionally grown food, where the risk of using glyphosate or other chemical pesticides is very high. Additionally, it is worth taking care of our physical fitness and maintaining a healthy weight, spending more time peacefully outdoors, and paying attention to the quality of sleep while reducing unnecessary stress.

Inflammation is strongly linked to metabolic processes in our bodies, so if we believe that the basics of our diet are already good, we can further optimize our intake of various superfoods rich in antioxidants. Therefore, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the ORAC scale, which presents food products that contain the most antioxidants. Adding spices such as turmeric, cloves, or cinnamon to our diet can be a great way to supplement our intake of antioxidants. Additionally, consuming berries, blueberries, strawberries, or even mushroom coffee made from chaga mushrooms can help reduce inflammation in our bodies.

In the context of inflammation, it's also worth remembering that a large part of our diet, even if it's already fairly well optimized, is rich in omega-6 fatty acids. To counteract their pro-inflammatory effects, it's beneficial to supplement our diet with omega-3 fatty acids. For those living in Poland, it's easiest to do this by taking a high-quality supplement, such as one derived from krill oil, or by incorporating large amounts of our native Baltic herrings into our diet.

I hope I have explained the concept of inflammation, especially chronic inflammation, a little bit. Now, when you hear that inflammation is the underlying cause of many diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, or other lifestyle-related illnesses, it will be easier for you to understand and take appropriate preventive measures.

In summary, it is definitely better to avoid and limit the occurrence of inflammation rather than fight against it. It's akin to not intentionally allowing threats into our country, as combating them later will be much more energy- and resource-consuming, and there may be some greater or lesser damage caused before they are effectively dealt with.