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Unit III Lesson 3
Inflammation is our body's response to damage: a sprained ankle, a burn, an infection... The symptoms we associate with inflammation, such as redness or swelling, represent the beginning of the repair process. Without inflammation, there is no healing.
Inflammation, therefore, is not bad. It is a strategy of the immune system to attack the pathogenic agent or when an injury occurs, and mobilize the necessary compounds for reconstruction. Under normal conditions, the threat is eliminated, the repair is complete, and a few days after the inflammation, anti-inflammatory processes are activated to minimize the damage. It is necessary to highlight the fact that the body has the same reaction when it detects possible damage, whether it is caused by pathogenic germs, free radicals, radiation, or even psychological disorders. The body will always activate the immune system causing an inflammatory process.
The problem comes when this process, for different reasons, remains constantly active. There is no apparent swelling or redness, but the immune system remains alert. The result is a low-grade, chronic, silent, and very dangerous permanent inflammation. It's like having a wound that never heals. The constant activation of the immune system, the state of persistent inflammation ends up altering the tissues and the organism as a whole, generating different disorders that we will see in this section.
Inflammation and disease
Modern chronic diseases are very diverse, but they share causative factors. Of these, chronic low-grade inflammation is the most relevant, raising the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases. In fact, it is associated with an increased risk of mortality from any cause. Inflammation is a better predictor of longevity than telomere length. This low-grade inflammation contributes to so many diseases because it affects the entire body:
Causes of low-grade inflammation
A multitude of factors contribute to this low-grade chronic inflammation. Let's review the main.
Obesity
When our fat cells, called adipocytes, are filled to the limit, they become dysfunctional, and they alert us to their status by releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines. Some people have an easier time than others to produce new adipocytes, and in these cases the increase in inflammation is less. By creating new adipocytes, the fat is distributed among more cells and the stress that each one supports is less. People who develop new adipocytes suffer less inflammation when gaining weight.
On the negative side, the adipocytes created by gaining weight will hardly be destroyed, facilitating future weight gains. On the other hand, some types of fat have limitations when it comes to hypertrophy, that is, to expand their reserve capacity.
For example, visceral fat is especially dangerous because it produces less hyperplasia and more hypertrophy, and therefore more inflammation. This inflammation of fatty tissue directly contributes to the risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.
Sedentary lifestyle
Lack of physical activity facilitates obesity, but is associated with increased inflammation regardless of weight. In other words, exercise reduces inflammation through multiple pathways, and not just because it helps burn fat.
In reality, the relationship between exercise and inflammation is complex. On the one hand, exercise is stressful and causes some damage, activating our inflammatory response. As we have seen, this punctual inflammation is not only not bad, but it is necessary to repair and strengthen our body. In fact, abusing anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen, could inhibit the effect of training.
On the other hand, repeated exercise has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. The muscle is an endocrine organ, which when stimulated produces myokines that counteract inflammation. Some muscle-produced interleukins (ILs) also stimulate general fat oxidation (such as IL-6), while others primarily attack visceral fat (such as IL-15). Muscles also produce BDNF, a neuronal fertilizer that mitigates depression and reduces the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.
People with obesity have much higher levels of inflammation than athletes.
Some researchers estimate that a third of the benefits of exercise come from its ability to mitigate this chronic inflammation.(1)
Unbalanced microbiota
As we know, different factors of modern life unbalance our microbiota and cause the intestinal mucosa to become permeable. This facilitates the crossing of molecules unknown to our immune system, causing it to raise inflammation as a protection strategy. When the intestinal mucosa loses integrity, compounds such as endotoxins from bacteria (lipopolysaccharides) can reach the bloodstream and increase inflammation.
Dysbiosis or imbalance of the microbiota also puts the immune system on alert, increasing the risk of inflammation and cancer.
Harmful foods
A bad diet elevates inflammation in multiple ways.
For starters, it harms the microbiota, perhaps the most direct pathway linking diet to inflammation. For example, a low fiber intake limits the production of butyrate in the colon, a particular acid that reduces inflammation.
When frying, especially with polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as sunflower, corn or soy), compounds that increase inflammation are produced. The result will be especially bad when reusing these degraded oils, and the continued use of reheated oils is associated with higher levels of vascular inflammation. In contrast, fresh food-based diets are associated with lower levels of inflammation.(2)
Although the important thing is to have a good overall diet, some foods have been specially studied for their anti-inflammatory potential:
Imbalance of Circadian Cycles
Like most processes in our body, the function of the immune system is also governed by circadian rhythms, and the dysregulation of these rhythms affects its function and increases inflammation. Furthermore, these processes feed off each other. Inflammation makes it difficult to sleep, and lack of sleep elevates inflammation. And as we also saw, it affects all the tissues and cells of the body to favor oxidative stress. (3)
Stress
When faced with a threat, our body activates the so-called sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for our fight or flight response. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Muscles tense and pupils dilate. In anticipation of a possible injury, pro-inflammatory cytokines are also secreted. Although this response is ineffective against most modern stressors, it is the only one we have. Our brain continues to believe that we live in an uncertain world. This acute response, applied intermittently, benefits us, hence the importance of introducing ancestral stimuli such as intense exercise, cold or heat.
However, constant stress, usually caused by psychoemotional factors, increases the risk of multiple diseases, and low-grade inflammation is one of the main pathways. The sympathetic nervous system facilitates inflammation, while the parasympathetic nervous system inhibits it. The balance between the two is key to regulating the immune system.
Compounds such as adaptogens (4) can help combat stress, in addition to having, some of them, a direct anti-inflammatory effect.
(5)
Aging
COver time, the cells become damaged and are replaced by others. In this regeneration process, some undergo dangerous mutations and are paralyzed by the immune system before they can become malignant. Many of these damaged cells are eliminated, but others remain in a zombie state, neither dead nor actually alive. These cells, called senescent cells, release substances that increase inflammation. For this reason, inflammation tends to rise with age, and with it all associated diseases. This is the concept of inflammaging, luckily, it is not an inevitable process, and its evolution depends more on our habits than on our years.
How to detect silent inflammation
As its name implies, this condition can be present without showing any symptoms, making it difficult to detect. Allopathy also does not currently have any specific marker that can measure it. Therefore, the therapist must infer its possible presence based on the information received from the patient. If the person is obese and/or sedentary, it is more likely that they may suffer from this disorder.
Also smoking, alcoholism or the abuse of any other type of drug can favor this condition. People who suffer from chronic-degenerative or complex diseases such as diabetes, cancer, allergies, poor immune system, lupus, Alzheimer's have probably already suffered from silent inflammation for a long time. While people who present inflammatory processes located in some organ or tissue such as arthritis, prostatitis, esophagitis, are also candidates for having suffered from silent systemic inflammation for a considerable time. As we already know, in these cases the specific pathogens that affect the organ, or the affected organs, must be found.
Bioenergetics can also help us to investigate this aspect, either by using the pendulum and a gradient graph, or by formulating questions that can be answered in the form of yes or no, such as:
Since there is no quantitative scale to measure chronic systemic inflammation, at the moment the classification as zero, mild, moderate and severe are the most convenient.
Another question could be:
Has the inflammation been present for (mention months, years or a specific date)?
To find the causes you can ask:
The factors that cause inflammation are...
Usually we will find that there are several causative factors.
In conclusion, silent inflammation depends more on the lifestyle habits that we already mentioned, such as healthy eating, exercise, hygiene, to avoid infections, respecting the hours of sleep; without forgetting the emotional balance and the adoption of anti-stress habits. Medicines can do little to prevent or control it, at most they can help alleviate its negative effects.
Biomagnetism can help on various fronts, either by applying energy balance pairs such as the nape - sacral pair or Dr. Bansal's pairs: palm – palm or plant-plant. In the same way, pairs can be applied to try to balance other systems such as the endocrine, the immune, the metabolism of fats. In other words, pairs can be applied according to the needs and imbalances detected in each patient. In this way, biomagnetism is an invaluable help in cases of silent inflammation (which are much more common than expected). However, and it is very important to clarify, a lasting balance cannot be achieved if the person does not carry out the change in lifestyle that we have already mentioned.
Watch video Silent inflammation
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4. Adaptogens are substances found in plants such as turmeric, elderberry, rosemary, chamomile, Siberian ginseng, ginger, rose hips, hawthorn, nettle and help relieve stress. They can be obtained naturally or in extracts marketed in various product brands.
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