What’s the Deal With Inflammation!?
It’s easy to get confused on the topic of inflammation. Most people confuse chronic inflammation with acute inflammation. If chronic, it can lead to diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, Dementia, and premature ageing in general. Acute inflammation is actually needed to grow muscle and adapt after exercise.
Inflammation is the body’s response to injury/infection. The immune system releases inflammatory mediators that activate pathways that work to heal injury by increasing blood flow and making it easier for immune cells to pass through the blood to the injured area. After exercise, this response is heightened to a very high level and then naturally goes back down.
Inflammation, free radicals, as well as structural damage in the muscle is actually beneficial, causing the body to create its own antioxidants to repair and remodel the muscle (as we talked about last month in the paragraph on antioxidants). Again, this is the reason we don’t want to take high doses (ie. Supplemental levels) of antioxidants like vitamin A, C, and E, flavonoids, or polyphenols, NSAIDs (ie. Ibuprofen), or doing cryotherapy right after workouts as it can actually be counterproductive.
In contrast, in chronic diseases, reactive oxygen species and inflammatory markers are elevated to a smaller degree but they don’t go back down. There’s nothing for the immune cells to attack so they may attack healthy tissues and organs.
The best way to avoid developing chronic inflammation without hindering the advantageous acute inflammation is to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. Be sure to include omega 3s (preferably from fish) and a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet.
-Lyns
