Inflammation and Your Immune System

Inflammation and Your Immune System

Your immune system is vast and complex and involves a number of systems, including the vascular/arterial systems, the lymphatic system, the endocrine system and more. And a huge player in any immune response, whether to an infection, strain or fractures, is inflammation.

Inflammation, on its own, is not a disease. It’s part of a natural, healthy immune response that’s stimulated by things like environmental toxins, bad foods, and stress. Inflammatory problems arise when something in your lifestyle is out of balance. A poor diet and unhealthy habits can lead to overproduction of inflammatory chemicals, which, more often than not, run rampant once released. The normal Western diet doesn’t provide nearly enough anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Scientifically speaking, inflammation is the process by which the body’s white blood cells, and their products, protect you from invading organisms. When a strain of bacteria gets inside you, it might be attacked by what are called complement proteins. These basically puncture the membrane of the bacteria to destroy them by a process known as osmotic lysis. The bacteria can also be killed off through phagocytosis, where phagocytic immune cells engulf and destroy them. Or the infection can be fought (if the immune cells themselves become infected) through a cell-mediated response that reveals the hidden bacterium to the rest of the immune system.

This is a vital part of the acute inflammatory response. But when it occurs apart from a normal immune response, inflammation is connected to all kinds of problems. This is called chronic inflammation, a long-term condition that can last up to several years or more. Your body isn’t designed to deal with this type of generic immunological activity, and eventually, the excess white blood cells and their by-products can damage your organs. Chronic inflammatory systemic diseases (CIDs) occur when the stimulating trigger of inflammation isn’t removed, which leads to maladaptive responses that include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and multiple sclerosis, all of which increase mortality and reduce your well-being.

In light of this, your personal strategy to increase your years and improve their quality has to include some methods of minimizing the causes of inflammation and over-stimulated immune activity.