DIFFERENCES IN ACUTE AND CHRONIC INFLAMMATION

Following up with yesterday's post on inflammation, here is something to think about. More than half of all deaths are thought to be attributed to diseases related to inflammation. However, our bodies can't function without inflammation. It is the body's first line of defense in healing injuries and fighting off infections. Doctor Sadiya Khan, M.D. a professor of Cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, describes it this way. "If you come down with a cold or a bacterial infection, this process happens inside the cells and tissues, where you usually can't see it.

This immediate response to a trigger, known as acute inflammation, is meant to be short-lived. After the white blood cells have done their job, your wound heals, or the fever breaks, you feel better and the inflammatory process winds down.

But sometimes the body can't quite figure out when or how to stop it and inflammation becomes chronic -- and that's when the process goes from helpful to harmful. Unfortunately, all autoimmune illnesses involve chronic inflammation.

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