“Inflammation is likely to be a mechanistic bridge between mental health and physical health conditions,” Professor Berk says. “It seems to be a risk factor for both mental health and physical health conditions.
In some depressed patients, chronic inflammation can be either the cause or a strong contributing factor to depression (Almond, 2013). Furthermore, chronic inflammation is causative or contributory in many cases of anxiety (Salim, Chugh, & Asghar, 2012).
Over a long period of time, improper inflammation can damage or destroy tissue; this damage can eventually result in cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, ADHD, autism, and mood disorders like depression and anxiety.
Most people know that inflammation can lead to a host of physical ailments, such as chronically inflamed joints in someone with arthritis. But chronic inflammation can also contribute to and worsen a whole host of mental conditions, from depression to bipolar to schizophrenia.
Inflammation was consistently found to affect basal ganglia and cortical reward and motor circuits to drive reduced motivation and motor activity, as well as anxiety-related brain regions including amygdala, insula and anterior cingulate cortex, which may result from cytokine effects on monoamines and glutamate.
When you're living with chronic inflammation, your body's inflammatory response can eventually start damaging healthy cells, tissues, and organs. Over time, this can lead to DNA damage, tissue death, and internal scarring. All of these are linked to the development of several diseases, including: cancer.
Based on visual observation, the ancients characterised inflammation by five cardinal signs, namely redness (rubor), swelling (tumour), heat (calor; only applicable to the body' extremities), pain (dolor) and loss of function (functio laesa).
The most common reasons for chronic inflammation include: Autoimmune disorders, such as lupus, where your body attacks healthy tissue. Exposure to toxins, like pollution or industrial chemicals. Untreated acute inflammation, such as from an infection or injury.
If chronic inflammation establishes itself in the brain, it leads to measurable brain shrinkage, especially in the areas associated with Alzheimer's disease, the 6th leading cause of death. Chronic brain inflammation shuts down energy production in brain cells, leading to mental fatigue, brain fog, and memory loss.
Brain Health Nutrition
There is some evidence that certain nutrients can help reduce brain inflammation. These include omega-3 fatty acids, curcumin (a component of turmeric), and green tea. Adding these nutrients to your diet, especially sufficient essential fatty acids may help reduce symptoms.
Preliminary evidence suggests anxiety disorders are also associated with increased inflammation. Systemic inflammation can access the brain, and enhance pro-inflammatory cytokine levels that have been shown to precipitate direct and indirect neurotoxic effects.
Heightened inflammation and negative attentional bias (AB) are often the results of psychological stress. Acute stressful challenges lead to increases in inflammatory activity and other neurophysiological changes that modulate affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes (Allen et al., 2014; Slavich and Irwin, 2014).
As inflammation progresses, however, it begins to damage your arteries, organs and joints. Left unchecked, it can contribute to chronic diseases, such as heart disease, blood vessel disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other conditions.
Using the protein kinase A inhibitor Rp-CAMPs, we found evidence to suggest that cAMP signalling is involved in regulating the anti-inflammatory response. These findings suggest that antidepressants may owe at least some of their therapeutic effectiveness to their anti-inflammatory properties.
Blood tests which detect inflammation are not sensitive enough to diagnose serious underlying conditions, generating an 85% false positive rate and a 50% false negative rate when used for this purpose, according to new research.
A CRP test may be used to help find or monitor inflammation in acute or chronic conditions, including: Infections from bacteria or viruses.
Practice makes perfect, at home or eating out
More good news: Making a few changes — like choosing whole grain breads instead of white bread, or adding a few fruit servings — can start making an immediate difference, though it may take up to six weeks for some people to see a significant change.
What are the signs of inflammation? The four cardinal signs of inflammation are redness (Latin rubor), heat (calor), swelling (tumor), and pain (dolor). Redness is caused by the dilation of small blood vessels in the area of injury.
Following the process of acute inflammation, there are several possible results: Complete resolution – with total repair and destruction of the insult. Fibrosis and scar formation – occurs in cases of significant inflammation. Chronic inflammation – from a persisting insult.
Important microcirculatory events that occur during the inflammatory process include vascular permeability changes, leukocyte recruitment and accumulation, and inflammatory mediator release [2, 6].
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
This test works by measuring how long it takes for red blood cells to fall to the bottom of a test tube. The quicker they fall, the more likely it is there are high levels of inflammation.