I see lots of foods listed as anti inflammatory but what exactly is inflamed? Are human bodies regularly inflamed? I’m just worried that it’s a pseudoscientific term.
In: Biology
One of the reasons that it has become a current buzzword is the increasing appreciation that 1) inflammation, whilst an amazing and complex response of the body to any minor or major injury, does have unwanted consequences (the tissue that is repaired is sometimes never quite as functional as the original) and 2) it can sometimes, whilst being triggered by a minor injury such as a virus, develop a life of its own, carrying on long beyond what was required to heal the original threat – classically demonstrated by the so-called autoimmune diseases which are probably genetically mediated. So the inflammatory response doesn’t stop, and ends up (long story) damaging our own tissues.
The concept of inflammation (understood as a good thing in order to heal and repair) also potentially having a damaging effect, is the issue here. Both these things are true.
However, I’ve had experience of many buzzwords/fads in medicine and this is another one where the science is not fully settled and won’t be any time soon, so people are making money out of saying, ‘don’t listen to the doctors and scientists – they’re in the pocket of big pharma and won’t tell you they have the solution because they hate you, here, buy our product which will solve your currently poorly understood illness.’
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