Pillar of Wellness 11:
Inflammation (exacerbative)
Inflammation of the whole body system is another relatively new concept in wellness, and again, is poorly recognised in modern medicine.
Most people understand inflammation when a cut becomes inflamed and the skin around it turns red and may swell. However, inflammation doesn’t only happen locally at a point of injury, an inflammatory immune response can be happening across the whole body, without being visually seen.
Inflammation is an immune response whereby the white blood cells release chemicals in response to injury to protect the body from attack (either from foreign invasion like bacteria, viruses or other chemicals including certain food particles) and to help it heal. Unchecked inflammation can lead to chronic disease, such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Sometimes the body’s inflammatory response can malfunction and the body may incorrectly interpret a part of itself as foreign and start to attack it. This is what happens in autoimmune disease, and is becoming increasingly common.