The overproduction of pro-inflammatory chemical signals known as cytokines from immune cells, as shown in the image, is an example of a situation where inflammation becomes excessive, Medzhitov said. (Image Credit: NANOCLUSTERING/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
“Inflammation is the new evil. Let me explain.”
“You may think that inflammation isn’t really THAT big of a problem… but trust me when I say it’s not.”
When browsing social media, you can easily find content that portrays inflammation as a negative phenomenon.
Every bookstore has at least one book with anti-inflammatory diet recipes, and every drugstore has a plethora of products touting their magical anti-inflammatory properties.
But inflammation has evolved over millennia to protect us in conditions that were relevant to our evolution, says Ruslan Medzhitov, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine and a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland, and he studies inflammation in the context of autoimmune diseases and allergies.
If not all inflammation is bad for us, how can we tell the “good” from the “bad”?
Live Science spoke with Medzhitov about how inflammation is the body's response to an imbalance in the system, how chronic inflammation arises from mismatches between our evolutionary environment and modern conditions, and whether there is any evidence to support specific “anti-inflammatory” diets.
Emily Cook: What is inflammation?
Ruslan Medzhitov: Inflammation is an integral part of our defense system. It evolved to protect us from various threats, including infections, injuries, or toxins. Without inflammation, we would quickly succumb to infections and die, and that would be the end.
Most of what we know about inflammation is related to extreme cases where there is an infection or injury and then there is swelling, redness, fever, etc. However, inflammation plays an important role in many different situations, including those where we don't diagnose it as inflammation and even when it is asymptomatic.
Inside the body, it plays an important role in coordinating metabolism, various physiological functions, and more. These functions of inflammation are much less appreciated and researched. For example, inflammation controls our metabolism, regulates environmental adaptation in thermogenesis [heat production], and even influences aspects of behavior. This last part is particularly interesting because inflammation can, for example, control mood. It can influence avoidance behavior and anxiety. All of these are usually defense mechanisms that are useful in certain conditions. When this response becomes unregulated, it can lead to various pathologies and disorders, and this is where inflammation becomes more well-known.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
