Inflammation - is this right?

[BrimFire]

I watched the C4 programme “What Not to Eat” recently .
They do all the weighting and blood tests before and after they get a new healthy diet.
One of the poor women had a before reading of 11 for her CPR test that measures inflammation. Very high and concerning.
Now I looked this test up as inflammation is a popular health scare currently . I literally meet every risk factor ;
“Several factors promote low-level chronic inflammation, such as age, smoking, diet, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, hormones, stress, and irregular sleep patterns.”
I drink like a fish and definitely feel inflamed some mornings.

So I bought an online blood test and weirdly it’s come back as very low.
How? Is the test not reliable? Is inflammation not as much of a thing as we are led to believe? I am a binge drinking, overweight, ( social smoker) .

[Whispers: I wish someone would explain what inflammation actually means. Everyone’s using this word nowadays as if we all understand it, but I don’t! Am I the only person?]

Inflammation after drinking alcohol is very common because one of the products of the breakdown is something which really triggers inflammation. Crp is a measure of acute inflammation in response to aomething like an infection, I think. It’s not a reliable indicator of chronic low level inflammation. The two doctors did a really good programme about drinking and had blood tests done that showed the impact of drinking on inflammation in the body. I sometimes get very acute inflammation throughout my body if I either drink continuously for a days and says, or if i binge drink a lot in one go.

You have many of the risk factors for inflammation but you don’t mention if you have any of the symptoms of it, other than “feeling inflamed” in the morning, which is somewhat unspecific. Probably related to the drinking rather than anything else.

The CRP test indicates that you don’t have any active inflammation, so you’re unlikely to have an infection or a chronic inflammatory condition. Isn’t that a good thing?!

Me too, Snore! I understand when my back is niggling there’s fluid built up that makes the area internally inflamed. Taking ibuprofen resolves it brilliantly. So ibuprofen is my painkiller of choice now.

I understand when I have a cold the membranes I. My nose and throat swell, so I get a sore throat, blocked nose and headache.

I don’t understand the difference between that and water retention, or why obesity causes I flammation (or vice versa)

I suffer from it badly until I realised what was causing mine. My body developed a hate towards any food that wasn’t clean. So no processed stuff at all. And if it is it is something like soup that has no artificial stuff at all.

I get it in my hips hands and mainly in my knees ( can feel it right now as I have obviously eaten something ). It also feels like my body has many layers and sitting can be uncomfortable. I have never heard if the test before. I am in pain when it happens. So wouldn’t need the test anyway.

My GP was always going on about inflammation. I do have an inflammatory disease but with medication my CRP is low so I’m not sure what more she wants me to do about it.

But what is it, please? Is a headache inflammation? Is asthma inflammation? Are period cramps inflammation? Everyone here is using the word but it’s not clear what it means. Is it one word that just means something in your body isn’t working properly?

@SilenceInside yes it’s a good result but I’m not sure I believe it.
The women on the programme was obese but didn’t smoke or drink. She was quite young. I can’t believe UPF is a bigger factor than booze and fags?

@Snoringboringbore I think
inflammation damages your cells. Sounded serious and life reducing,

I hear this word mentioned a lot

I have hay fever and my cousin has arthritis. I can see how that is inflammation of course

But I also hear about people just talking about inflammation in the body and I don't know what that means

I actually know someone who takes anti-inflammatory supplements because she thinks inflammation is a big risk to cells

But when I asked her to explain it to me, I just got lots of hand waving and no answer

Swelling. When you injure something it swells and gets hot- that’s inflammation. Fluid gathers there, causing the swelling.

I think.

Chronic inflammation is an ongoing state of inflammation rather than a short term response to an injury.

Anything medically that ends in “itis” is inflammation, so arthritis, conjunctivitis, appendicitis, tonsillitis…there’s a lot of scope for inflammation in the body.

I’m confused too.

How does it actually feel? Especially if you’re not suffering from a traditional “-itis”? Or do you need to have one of those to br inflamed?

There are other inflammation markers, ESR I think is an acute phase one(but mines always high due to AI condition), CRP already mentioned, white blood cell count, ferritin. Various things can elevate some of them, autoimmune conditions, infections, age, osteoarthritis, obesity.

All of that but if your markers are all low, how is the inflammation manifesting itself and how do you measure it? It all feels very vague to me. It’s obvious if you have some symptoms of infection or autoimmune conditions, I have RA for example but it is under control for the main part. All of the things my GP suggested, dietary or lifestyle, haven’t made the slightest bit of difference to my inflammatory markers and I still get severe infections, being on immunosuppressants. I wish someone could explain the mechanism better.

Yes I agree with you! Autoimmune diseases are very complicated and no two people are the same. Some can be seronegative and still have signs that disease is active which would be diagnosed via other lesser known tests & scans for obvious nodules if RA suspected. It's not just the auto antibodies like in your case anti CCP, ana titre., rheumatoid factor, immunofluorescence, plus the general inflammatory markers ESR, crp at play. There are other back ups in the immune army, waging war on us, adaptive immune response ie B cells, T cells, cytokines. The hope is with Artificial Intelligence & research, there will be more targeted biologics, procedures to reset the immune & damp down those cells. Maybe gene therapy. Rheumatoid arthritis can be miserable, I kid you not, I know 11 people with it, 8 female & 3 male, all with totally different presentations, drug regimens.

C reactive protein is one measure of inflammation, but it doesn’t necessarily paint an overall picture of your health. When I was drinking heavily (I’m a recovering alcoholic), my CRP was 6. But my tests of liver and pancreas inflammation and a general test that indicated inflammation of the digestive tract was very high. That said, my CRP was 110 (!!) due to cancer treatment and while I felt unwell, I didn’t feel as bad as you’d expect for someone objectively so poorly. I can’t recommend enough stopping drinking and getting some fresh air and exercise. Made a world of difference for me.

"Acute inflammation may cause flushed skin, pain or tenderness, swelling and heat. Chronic inflammation can be harder to spot with a wide range of possible signs.

What is inflammation?

Inflammation is your body’s response to an illness, injury or something that doesn’t belong in your body (like germs or toxic chemicals). Inflammation is a normal and important process that allows your body to heal. Fever, for example, is how you know your body’s inflammatory system is working correctly when you’re ill. But inflammation can harm you if it occurs in healthy tissues or goes on for too long.

When an invader (like a virus) tries to enter your body, or you get injured, your immune system sends out its first responders. These are inflammatory cells and cytokines (substances that stimulate more inflammatory cells). These cells begin an inflammatory response to trap germs or toxins and start healing injured tissue. Inflammation can cause pain, swelling or discoloration. These are signs your body is healing itself. Normal inflammation should be mild, and pain shouldn’t be extreme.

But inflammation can also affect parts of your body you can’t see. Inflammatory responses that occur behind the scenes can help you heal, but other times, they can harm your health."

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/21660-inflammation

CRP is very unreliable as a medical test. It's a vague 'something in your body is reacting to something it doesn't like' kind of test and it can remain high for quite a while after whatever it was has passed. On its own it has very little diagnostic value. I think of it a little bit like smelling smoke, it let's you know something has happened or is happening, but it doesn't really distinguish between a candle and an inferno or tell you where the fire is!

Inflammation is a response, if it happens correctly, in response to an injury or threat of some kind it is protective and is followed by healing and repair. The issue comes when the response is triggered by a false threat or by our own bodies or when the response is out of proportion to the threat or persists too long. Inflammation uses up a lot of resources and if it doesn't subside when it should the healing and repair can't happen amd longer lasting damage may occur.

Inflammation can be external and visible, like an ankle swelling if you sprain it, or internal where it may not be seen or felt until it begins to cause problems.

@AltitudeCheck I like the smoke detector analogy. However I don’t understand why the womans in the program went off so loudly and mine didn’t. I mean they obviously do the test on participants because they think it’s relevant to assessing health.
I assumed it was a good indicator of a problem but maybe not

@mindutopia Thats interesting. Well done on sobriety. I am trying hard to get a bit healthier if only for vanity.

Whats a better test ? I do test my BP every few months which is just on the upper limit of healthy.

11 is not high! I've just been in hospital with original markers of 284. It was a severe bacterial infection. When it got down to 14 they considered me ok.

“Several factors promote low-level chronic inflammation, such as age, smoking, diet, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, hormones, stress, and irregular sleep patterns.”

Just because some risk factors are associated with low-level inflammation it doesn't mean that people with those risk factors will necessarily have inflammation (or that the inflammation will result in a raised CRP). You could have 10 people with poor diets, obesity, same age, smoking/ drinking history etc and some may have a raised CRP and others would not.

I suspect the woman in the TV show was used because she had a raised CRP, it wouldn't have made such compelling viewing if she was one of the people who had risk factors but no detectable CRP!

Thanks - this explains it

I don’t think 11 is high- it needs also to be taken in context with a lot of other bloods and tests. It is slightly raised but mine goes to 450 when having a flare - that I would consider high.

I have PCOS which has "chronic, low grade inflammation" as one of the symptoms. For me, it mainly shows up as fatigue, joint pain, acne and some skin issues.

I'm very lucky that I (so far) am not showing signs of weight issues or insulin resistence, but I do take inositol to help stabilise my blood sugars and I walk 18-20k steps a day at work which probably makes big difference.

I can feel my inflammation increase/subside around my cycles.

Jeepers! That's extraordinarily high. I hope your condition can be managed ok.