How acute inflammation turns chronic

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Chronic inflammation might sound like a complicated medical term, but it's something that affects many of us more than we realize. It can quietly affect your health, often showing up through subtle symptoms like fatigue, joint pain, and digestive issues.

Causes of chronic inflammation

Chronic inflammation often starts when your body's natural response to a problem, like an infection or injury, doesn't shut off as it should. It can develop in any of several ways. One possibility is that the problem or threat remains because the body can't rid itself of the offending substance, be it an infectious organism, an irritant, or a chemical toxin. The immune system is pretty good at eliminating invaders, but sometimes pathogens resist even our best defenses and hide out in tissues, provoking the inflammatory response again and again.

Another possible scenario is that the immune system goes into "threat mode" when no true threat exists. In an autoimmune disorder, the immune system seems to become overly sensitized to the body's own healthy cells and tissue. It reacts against the joints, intestines, or other organs and tissues as if they were dangerous. As the inflammatory response continues, it damages the body instead of healing it.

Unhealthful lifestyle choices can also cause ongoing inflammation. Smoking, being sedentary, or eating a diet high in processed foods and refined carbohydrates can contribute to chronic inflammation. This ongoing inflammation increases the risk of many diseases—including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Signs and symptoms of chronic inflammation

The signs of chronic inflammation are not as obvious as those of acute inflammation. No sharp twinge of pain as when you cut yourself, no swelling or redness will you see to alert you to a problem. Chronic inflammation can be widespread or more localized to specific areas of the body. Some of the symptoms associated with chronic inflammation include:

fatigue and lack of energy
depression, anxiety
muscle aches and joint pain
constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal complaints
changes in weight or appetite
headaches
a "fuzzy" mental state (brain fog).

For additional advice about ways to reduce inflammation, check out Fighting Inflammation, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

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Fighting Inflammation

Chronic inflammation plays a central role in some of the most challenging diseases of our time, including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and even Alzheimer’s. This report will examine the role that chronic inflammation plays in these conditions, and will also provide information on the breadth of drugs currently available to alleviate symptoms. Drug choices range from simple aspirin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that’s been available for more than a century, to disease-modifying drugs and so-called biologics that promise more targeted treatments.

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