What’s the difference between acute and chronic inflammation?
Acute inflammation is sudden and temporary e.g. as an immediate result of a cut finger. The inflammatory response is your body’s reaction to the injury and the inflammation is there to help your body to heal. Whereas chronic inflammation can go on for months or years and the inflammatory response is not necessarily helping your body to heal by this stage.
During acute inflammation, innate immune cells form the first line of defence and regulate the activation of adaptive immune responses. By contrast, during chronic inflammation, these roles can be reversed and adaptive immune responses can cause ongoing and excessive activation of immune cells.
Examples of diseases associated with chronic inflammation are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, malignancy, auto-immune disease, chronic hepatic and renal disease, osteoarthritis etc.
How do I know if I have chronic inflammation?
You can have a blood test to measure a protein produced by your liver, C-reactive protein (CRP) which rises in response to inflammation. A CRP level between 1 and 3 milligrams per litre of blood often signals a low yet chronic level of inflammation.
How can I fight the inflammation naturally?
A daily dose of Turmeric is a good example of a ‘medicine’ you can take to help to reduce your inflammation. The active ingredient in turmeric is a natural compound called curcumin, which has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Also as part of your daily diet choosing mostly unprocessed and fresh foods which are high in antioxidants will neutralise free radicals (bi-products of inflammation) and reduce or even prevent some of the damage they cause.
For many years now at Scenic Rim Physios, Canungra we have been sourcing Turmeric from a Naturopath who makes the product for us. It is made using black pepper and ginger and taken as a ‘medicine’ to be optimally bioavailable.
Please call in to the clinic if you’d like to try some.
