What Is Low-Level Chronic Inflammation?

Published by Lois on August 27th, 2008

What is low-level chronic inflammation?

Chronic low-levels of inflammation are the way your body responds to persistent, undesirable states of health such as long lasting infections, repeated injuries to your body through exercise, tooth decay or gum disease, an imbalance of various foods in your diet, or the presence of toxins in your environment. In some cases, you are actually continually suffering from infections, from hazardous chemicals or pollutants, or from physical injury from accident-work-sports, or from psychological worry and stress, and your body is responding to those malicious factors in your life. In other cases, your body is acting like it is under attack even though it is not. This can happen when you have developed something called an inflammatory cascade due to many factors, including simply an imbalance of the nutrients in your diet. The relative over-abundance of some foods and the scarcity of others can result in chronic persistent low levels of inflammation.

People used to think inflammation was simply the redness and swelling that happened when you got a cut, scrape, infection or bruise… of course now we know much more about it. See the old definitions that many people still think of when they hear the term below.

The Old Definitions of Inflammation - (1) Response of the tissues of the body to irritation or injury, characterized by pain, swelling, redness, and heat. The severity, specific characteristics, and duration of the inflammation depend on the cause, the particular area of the body affected, and the health of the person. (2) “Inflammation is a process in which the body’s white blood cells and chemicals can protect us from infection and foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses. In some diseases, however, the body’s defense system (immune system) triggers an inflammatory response when there are no foreign substances to fight off. In these diseases, called autoimmune diseases, the body’s normally protective immune system causes damage to its own tissues. The body responds as if normal tissues are infected or somehow abnormal.” …More Info

How you recognize chronic low-level inflammation?

Chronic low level inflammation can be invisible at first. For weeks, months, years and even in some cases for decades, your body can be suffering from low level chronic inflammation quietly, without you or your doctor knowing about it. Today, your doctor can do a simple inexpensive blood test to see if you have an elevated level of CRP. This is called the “high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein test”. We believe that every adult and many children should have this easy test performed at least once per year by their doctor. Before taking the test, you can also suspect you have the problem if you detect any of these symptoms: If you have been gaining weight steadily over time despite controlling your food intake, you could have the problem. If you often suffer from continuous aches and pains in your joints, you may have it. If your nose constantly runs and you have the sniffles, if your skin is usually dry, if you have slow healing wounds, dandruff, seborrhea, acne, you most likely are suffering from inflammation.

Low levels of inflammation used to be considered “normal” by many doctors and researchers, largely because the condition was so common. Of course, heart diseases, strokes, diabetes and cancers are also common. Obviously, they are not desirable, even though they could be considered “normal” since they are so common. Today, most medical authorities now recognize that low level, persistent inflammation generally precedes many common diseases. What used to be called “sub-clinical inflammation” is now considered “clinically treatable” by most leading physicians and researchers. While your own doctor may not be looking at your inflammation levels, he will usually be perfectly willing to do so if you ask him. His monthly medical journals are filled with new research reports about inflammation. Inflammation is today’s hottest medical topic.

Your doctor can do a simple, fast and inexpensive blood test for high levels of these markers of inflammation, if you or he suspect that you suffer from chronic inflammation:

C-Reactive Protein (CRP)
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a)
Interleukin-6 (IL-6)
Interleukin 1b [IL-1(b)]
Interleukin-8 (IL-8)

The list of diseases associated with inflammation is very large. If you already have any of these major diseases or conditions, then you very likely suffer from low level, or possibly high level chronic inflammation.

http://www.level1diet.com/how-inflammation-made-you-sick.html