How Does Inflammation Affect Your Body? Know Symptoms, Causes From Our Expert

Inflammation is something that we experience and hear so often. Inflammation in the body can cause a plenty of health problems. Your immune system actually protects your body from getting infections and diseases on a whole. However, it might not always be possible for the body to prevent infection but it can surely reduce the risk. Autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, bowel diseases and so on could get affected because of improper diet or other factors triggering your system. Let us understand some causes and symptoms behind inflammation in the body. We spoke with Dr. Sumeet Nigam, General Physician from Sahara Hospital, Lucknow to know about inflammation in body.  

What is inflammation? 

Inflammation happens to each and every one, whether be it cold, liver infection, congestion or any other pain, it is occurs because of inflammation in different parts of the body. In order to protect your body from injury or diseases, you must prevent inflammation from affecting you. Doctor says that there aren’t many things that would heal unless and until inflammation is treated. Almost all health diseases, especially autoimmune diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis could affect your healthy cells in the body. Iin autoimmune diseases, your immune system attacks your own healthy cells in the body which causes severe health problems. 

Types of Inflammation 

There are two major types in which inflammation is divided into, it could be categorized into acute inflammation or chronic inflammation.  

Acute inflammation- This usually occurs in short duration, as a result of this it becomes comparatively problematic in certain ways. Acute inflammation can be restored in a couple of days therefore it does not cause too many complications.  

Chronic Inflammation- This is a slow process in which inflammation affects your body. Chronic inflammation lasts longer than six weeks or so. It might cause even more injurious in the case where injury is not healed. Chronic inflammation has been linked to autoimmune disorder that could be progressive and susceptible to diseases. It can even cause prolonged stress.

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Symptoms of Inflammation 

There could be multiple reasons that could cause inflammation in the body. If there are long term effects, then it is possible that list of symptoms is also more in number. Long-term or chronic inflammation can cause these symptoms- 

• Body pain 
• Constant fatigue or insomnia 
• Depression, anxiety or other mood disorder 
• Gastrointestinal issues 
• Constipation, diarrhea and acid reflux  
• Weight gain 
• Frequent tendency of infections 

Symptoms of Common Inflammatory Condition 

Since symptoms vary depending on different conditions, it is important that it has inflammatory component attached to it. There are certain general conditions that could lead you to rashes, and other hormonal changes in the body.  

Common inflammatory conditions include rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis. 

Multiple sclerosis- fatigue, cognitive impairment, double vision, balancing problems, numbness in feat and tingling in arms 

Inflammatory bowel diseases- diarrhea, stomach pain, cramps, bloating, bleeding ulcers and anemia 

Rheumatoid Arthritis- joint pain, fatigue, restriction in range of motion, numbness or tingling 

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Causes of Inflammation in Body 

There could be many factors that could be responsible for inflammation in the body. Depending on the type and location of inflammation, you need to clear the following causes- 

• Chronic or acute diseases/ conditions 
• Exposure to certain types of materials or irritants 
• Some types of medications 

If the inflammation returns time and again, then it led the person to chronic inflammatory response. There are different kind of foods that could worsen the situation of the person. Here are certain types of food that you must avoid in order to control the problems- 

• Sugar 
• Refined carbohydrates 
• Alcohol 
• Processed meats 
• Trans fats 

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