05/15/2025
🔥Inflammation is known as the silent killer. It lurks in the body, often leaving no noticeable signs in its path until one day you have a chronic condition such as diabetes or heart disease.
🔥The body gets out of balance, the immune system is weak and old injuries start to hurt.
🔥While acute inflammation serves to protect the body and its cells, chronic inflammation does quite the opposite. It can lead to severe system-wide damage over time.
🔥Chronic inflammation occurs when the body’s cells are stressed by internal or external factors or the white blood cells perceive a foreign invader that isn’t there.
🔥An inflammatory response is triggered — sometimes in one area of the body and sometimes throughout the entire body.
🔥And unlike acute inflammation, it does not dissipate. Instead, it lingers, wreaking absolute havoc.
🔥This type of inflammation can go unnoticed for a long time, as it may cause generalized discomfort that is not easily associated with inflammation.
🔥In some cases, symptoms of chronic inflammation may be dismissed as normal signs of the aging process, and therefore overlooked until the inflammation has already caused significant harm.
🔥This is known as “low-grade” chronic inflammation. It may become severe if not addressed.
🔥In the case of autoimmune diseases, the body begins to attack its own tissues, degrading them over time. If this inflammation is in the joints, such as in the case of arthritis, the cartilage begins to wear down.
✴️Illnesses from chronic inflammation
✴️Chronic inflammation can lead to conditions like heart disease.
Chronic inflammation can contribute to a great many illnesses, depending on how it presents. These include autoimmune disorders (as mentioned), depression, cognitive decline (such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia), age-related macular degeneration, chronic kidney disease (CKD), type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and heart disease.
✴️These are just a few examples; chronic inflammation can underlie a great many significant threats to our bodies and minds.
✴️Chronic inflammation can be triggered or worsened by certain lifestyle factors, such as smoking, excessive alcohol intake, drug use, obesity, insufficient sleep, chronically elevated stress levels, lowered levels of s*x hormones in the body, and — very notably — a poor diet. If we eat unhealthy foods or do not get adequate levels of the nutrients our bodies need, it paves the way for chronic inflammation to thrive.
✴️The scary thing about chronic inflammation is that if it is left unchecked, it will likely not get better on its own. Quite to the contrary, it will often get a lot worse, especially if it is present for a number of years. This makes it especially important to identify and address chronic inflammation as soon as possible.