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Inflammation. The word probably makes you think of a knee swollen from running or a puffed-up pimple on your face—common problems that can be cured with the help of some ice or OTC meds. But there's another kind of inflammation that means something else entirely: chronic inflammation—a slow, silent disturbance that never shuts off. You can't feel it. You can't be tested for it. Yet it has become a medical hot topic: More and more research shows that chronic inflammation is involved in heavy-hitting illnesses. Says integrative medicine specialist Frank Lipman, M.D., director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City, "It's an underlying cause for many, many diseases."
Scientists are still in the process of decoding exactly how inflammation works, but here's what we know so far: It all starts with the immune system, the body's first line of defense against any kind of harm. When you're injured or sick, your bone marrow dispatches veritable SWAT teams of white blood cells to root out infection and jump Scientists are still in the process of decoding exactly how inflammation works, but here's what we know so far: It all starts with the immune system, the body's first line of defense against any kind of harm. When you're injured or sick, your bone marrow dispatches veritable SWAT teams of white blood cells to root out infection and jump-start the healing process. Sometimes, however, the immune system gets a faulty distress signal and deploys an unnecessary first-aid squad. Those misguided white blood cells still mobilize just like they would if you were actually under the weather, but because there's no infection for them to attack, they end up just hanging around, often for a long, long time.
Problem is, your body isn't made to accommodate this kind of unfocused immune activity, and eventually those white blood cells can start damaging your internal organs. They can also needlessly assault other cells the body routinely uses to push off disease, leaving the door cracked open for illnesses such as cancer.
Thankfully, you can do something about preventing and quashing chronic inflammation. Read on to find out how to snuff out this silent danger.
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