Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#11

Post by programmarchy » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #10

Because we pretty much solved all the acute illnesses so we are left with self-inflicted chronic conditions. Pretty much all non-genetic chronic conditions are a result of diet and exercise. You can drastically reduce your chances of cancer, stroke, heart attack, alzeihmers, T2 diabetes, Parkinson’s.... you name it, with diet and exercise. You can even cure most of them with diet and exercise. I’ll be downvoted to ob…

Related to this, I saw an interesting graph where money spent on food is inversely correlated to money spent on health care. So spending more to eat healthier food will save you money on health care in the future. Or you can eat cheap food and accumulate health debt.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#12

Post by huffmsa » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:36 PM UTC

ianai wrote: post #7

api wrote: post #6

Isn't it part of the body's response to sickness? Why does screaming tend to underlie all stabbings?

Screaming doesn’t worsen stabbing wounds, directly. But inflammation does often (in all the examples I’ve read) worsen the triggering illness.

Chronic inflammation worsens chronic illness.

Acute inflammation is generally good. Ice should only be applied when the swelling is cutting off blood flow

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#13

Post by coldtea » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:36 PM UTC

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #10

Because we pretty much solved all the acute illnesses so we are left with self-inflicted chronic conditions. Pretty much all non-genetic chronic conditions are a result of diet and exercise. You can drastically reduce your chances of cancer, stroke, heart attack, alzeihmers, T2 diabetes, Parkinson’s.... you name it, with diet and exercise. You can even cure most of them with diet and exercise. I’ll be downvoted to ob…

What people forget is that not all choice is equally easy.

The choice to "diet and exercise" is easier for a rich guy with a personal chef and trainer.

It's much more difficult for a poorer person working 2 stressful jobs, having to go back in a home late in the day exhausted and deal with whatever family/personal issues lurking around.

And while there's a spectrum between one and the other extreme, more lower middle class, working class people are closer to the second case. (And there are circumstances in the first case, like stress, addiction, psychological history, that can make it hard to diet/exercise, even if you could easily afford a personal chef/trainer).

So, yeah, it's a choice.

But what (budgetary, stress-wise, family, expert, time, etc) support a person has in making that choice and sticking to it is not the same in all case, and can vary widely pro and against.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#14

Post by twic » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:39 PM UTC

zby wrote: post #4

The article does not really support the implicit thesis from the title - it lists some diseases that are caused by bad inflamation, some items are maybe surprising - but it does not mention diseases that obviously have different causes like infections. Overall clickbait with no content.

Even in infections, it can be the inflammatory response which causes the damage. I had myocarditis following a flu infection, but it wasn't the influenza virus that screwed up my heart muscle, it was the white blood cells going apeshit trying to kill it.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#15

Post by catoc » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

huffmsa wrote: post #12

ianai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screaming doesn’t worsen stabbing wounds, directly. But inflammation does often (in all the examples I’ve read) worsen the triggering illness.

Chronic inflammation worsens chronic illness. Acute inflammation is generally good. Ice should only be applied when the swelling is cutting off blood flow

Acute inflammation severely increases damage after moderately severe ischemic stroke [in rats], which can be prevented by blocking the acute inflammatory response. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5257154_Interferon-...

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#16

Post by twic » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #9

There’s a thing called the “Cell Danger Response”, where individual cells react to detecting danger to themselves in a somewhat selfish way, by inflaming and emitting purines (the chemicals cells also release when they lyse apart during apoptosis.) By the fact that other cells detect danger using these purines, this response is usually cascading in a local area. It lasts a long time; sometimes cells just never go out…

I had never heard of this "cell danger response" before, and there's something about your description that does't smell right to this former cell biologist.

It's worth noting that so far, this seems to be a theory being advanced by one scientist:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=%22cell+danger+res...

This is not to say it's not true. But let's be careful here.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#17

Post by ianai » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:48 PM UTC

programmarchy wrote: post #11

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #10

Because we pretty much solved all the acute illnesses so we are left with self-inflicted chronic conditions. Pretty much all non-genetic chronic conditions are a result of diet and exercise. You can drastically reduce your chances of cancer, stroke, heart attack, alzeihmers, T2 diabetes, Parkinson’s.... you name it, with diet and exercise. You can even cure most of them with diet and exercise. I’ll be downvoted to ob…

Related to this, I saw an interesting graph where money spent on food is inversely correlated to money spent on health care. So spending more to eat healthier food will save you money on health care in the future. Or you can eat cheap food and accumulate health debt.

Probably have to separate out any restaurant dining in that calculation. There’s a nonlinear relationship going on there.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#18

Post by catoc » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #10

Because we pretty much solved all the acute illnesses so we are left with self-inflicted chronic conditions. Pretty much all non-genetic chronic conditions are a result of diet and exercise. You can drastically reduce your chances of cancer, stroke, heart attack, alzeihmers, T2 diabetes, Parkinson’s.... you name it, with diet and exercise. You can even cure most of them with diet and exercise. I’ll be downvoted to ob…

I'd never downvote an unpopular comment just because it's unpopular - as long as it is backed by arguments. So, not down-voted, but I do disagree. Not all disease is a choice. It's not true that surviving, say cancer, is simply a choice to "fight" or diet properly (even if retro-actively, i.e. could have been prevented by said diet). Just as an example, a BRCA-1 gene mutation (not a choice) hands you an 80% life-time risk of getting breast cancer. Usually this is an aggressive tripple-negative cancers against which you can "fight" or diet as hard as you like, but where "victory" is simply going to be out of reach. Edit: parent did not state "all", but "most".

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#19

Post by ianai » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #16

derefr wrote: post #9

There’s a thing called the “Cell Danger Response”, where individual cells react to detecting danger to themselves in a somewhat selfish way, by inflaming and emitting purines (the chemicals cells also release when they lyse apart during apoptosis.) By the fact that other cells detect danger using these purines, this response is usually cascading in a local area. It lasts a long time; sometimes cells just never go out…

I had never heard of this "cell danger response" before, and there's something about your description that does't smell right to this former cell biologist. It's worth noting that so far, this seems to be a theory being advanced by one scientist: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=%22cell+danger+res... This is not to say it's not true. But let's be careful here.

Careful? His comment is arguably the best I’ve read on HN this week.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#20

Post by rasengan » Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:51 PM UTC

Fighting inflammation has worked out much better for me than targeting any specific type of issue. As an example, bromelain, curbs sinus inflammation which reduces the number of sinus infections in some people.