Dealing With the Dangers of Chronic Inflammation

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People usually think of inflammation as the red swelling you get when you inevitably smash your shin against a coffee table. That acute reaction is just your immune system rushing blood to the damaged area to fix the immediate problem. But millions of adults are actually walking around with a biological defense mechanism that essentially refuses to switch off that blaring emergency siren. Chronic inflammation is basically what happens when your internal security system gets confused and starts attacking perfectly healthy tissue over a span of several years. You end up feeling completely exhausted because your body is burning massive amounts of energy fighting an invisible threat that literally doesn’t exist. Stop treating unexplained daily fatigue like a personal moral failure and start looking at what your cells are actually doing behind the scenes when they’re left to fight a phantom war. You have to recognize that chronic exhaustion is a physical warning sign rather than a character flaw. 

The danger of chronic inflammation

Ignoring chronic bodily stress for a decade usually leads to a miserable snowballing of entirely preventable physical problems down the line. Your joints start aching every time the weather changes and your brain feels completely stuffed with cotton wool every afternoon. The constant flood of defensive chemicals eventually damages your blood vessels and vital organs while making you feel like you just ran a marathon when all you actually did was walk to the mailbox. Why do we just accept feeling terrible as a standard part of getting older?!  this prolonged internal friction dramatically increases your risk of developing severe autoimmune conditions or heart disease later in life. Your body simply cannot repair itself if you never give it a proper window of downtime to clear out the cellular debris. Inflammation can lead to issues like cancers and dementia and generally damages your body.

Get tested

If you’re having symptoms of inflammation, or you have a strong family risk of autoimmune disease it’s worth getting tested for different conditions. These diseases in particular are when your body attacks its own healthy tissues, for example with hypothyroidism your body attacks its own thyroid which then stops regulating hormones correctly. With autoimmune issues like lupus, your body attacks its own organs, skin, joints and even brain. If you’re noticing low levels of inflammation it can be a red flag for an illness like this.

Lifestyle changes

Following all of the usual healthy lifestyle advice is useful with inflammation. Good diet, exercise, proper sleep, good hydration etc will all help. Lymphatic drainage massage to stimulate the lymph system can be useful with certain kinds of inflammation too. But it’s important to find the root cause as lifestyle issues wont necessarily be enough if you have an underlying condition that needs treatment.