How inflammation leads to pain: the science.

Sometimes it’s just nice to have an understanding of what is going on in your body, and to scientifically know in the simplest of ways as to what it is giving you pain.

So hopefully, I am able to explain what’s going on. Because I know that when I can picture in my mind what it is I’m up against I find it a lot easier to create a solution.

Here we go…

Inside almost every cell of your body is a particular group of protein strings wrapped around each other resembling a ball of yarn. That protein ball is termed as NF-kappaB (NF-kB).

When a threat appears in the body such as a germ, NF-kB is activated. It travels into the core of its cell and tells it to start producing all sorts of inflammatory compounds including chemokines, cytokines, adhesion molecules and inflammatory mediation.

These inflammatory chemicals serve as a useful purpose, they cause nearby blood vessels to expand resulting to increased blood flow into the area where the germ has set up shop. This begins the immune system’s responses to fight the threat and to heal the damage that the germ has caused.

The inflammation will make the surrounding tissue swell and activate the pain receptors and cause pain.

This has now brought our attention to the pain alarm that has been set off, and we now know something is wrong and we can treat the problem accordingly.

This is a very efficient system, until it isn’t….

When Inflammation is Overdone or Becomes Chronic

I love the picture where I imagine that the NF-kB has been activated and the inflammatory compounds are alerted, the sirens go off so that the blood vessels can expand to allow the blood to gush at a pace towards the enemy germ that has invaded. There’s a whole bloody murder going off ‘batten down the hatches’ ’mayday, mayday’!

The body is such a clever machine – all of this is going on inside as we go about our business.

What happens though when NF-kB has unleashed the inflammation when there is no germ, but it perceives that there is a danger when it actually isn’t there?

These perceived dangers appear when the body is repeatedly stressed, sending an elevated amount of cortisol – the number one stress hormone into the bloodstream putting the body into high alert readying for an attack. With persistent stress the adrenal glands and immune system are constantly in overdrive setting off the chronic inflammation response.

The body will respond similarly to poor sleep which of course often couples with stress.

Heavy alcohol triggers systemic inflammation as it interferes with the body’s natural defences in the intestine, which then can lead to liver and brain dysfunction.

Crappy Foods are quite frankly the biggest culprit because so many people start eating junk at such an early age. Where there is an age limit to alcohol there is no age limit to damaging foods. So many dietary decisions lead to inflammation which then go on to wreak havoc on the body. When the body has received decades of bad food choices it will eventually react in a very negative way.

Thankfully every cell in our body re-new’s, and by rectifying damaging behaviours those new cells can stay healthy and inflammation free. The mechanics of the body is so clever, with the decision to make the changes it will put itself right.

If you’ve felt anything that has been said today resonating and feel that you may be ready to start styling your life, this just might be the right time for you to reach out.