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Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

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31–40 of 86 posts

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#31
post #29
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If someone pushes you, and you start swinging your arms wildly to balance yourself, but end up falling in a different direction - why did you fall?

How hard did they push you? If they shoved you with only a micronewton if force and you fell, it's probably the fault of your overreaction.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#32
post #14
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.

I not sure whether this is the point you were making or not, but without the inflammation perhaps you would have simply died from the flu infection due to insufficient white blood cells around to kill it before it spread elsewhere in your body.

But it's perfectly possible to acknowledge the damage inflammation does while also acknowledging its necessity (or at least the possibility of its necessity). Just like e.g. you can acknowledge that chemotherapy drugs do damage to the body while still acknowledging that they're necessary sometimes.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#33

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…

>>but you should know that illness is a choice.

So I got this friendly reminder from life few months ago that you can tick all the "healthy lifestyle" boxes and still get fucked over. Long story short, I work a completely normal IT office job, exercise, eat healthy, etc etc, and yet I contracted a human Parvovirus from someone, probably completely randomly as it's contagious before you get any symptops and it spreads by air. It absolutely fucked me over - was out of action for 2 months just non-stop in bed with weekly visits to the hospital, super high fever, lack of energy to do literally anything, and then as I was starting to feel better - it has completely messed up my knee, to a point where it's still completely arthretic and I need to have physio sessions weekly just to be able to walk without pain.

No, I will not believe this was by choice in any way. If you don't have a built-in parvovirus immunity from having had it as a child(when the symptoms are super mild), you can contract it at any point in your life and there's nothing a "healthy lifestyle" will help there.

And I'm sure that's not the only thing you can catch randomly from someone that can completely upend your life for a while.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#35
post #15
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

Generally being the operative word. There are certainly cases where it's harmful.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#36
post #35
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

Generally being the operative word. There are certainly cases where it's harmful.

And I thought it was interesting to provide such a counter example :-) HN generally appreciates factual knowledge

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#37
post #29
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If someone pushes you, and you start swinging your arms wildly to balance yourself, but end up falling in a different direction - why did you fall?

If you took falling lessons as a kid, and you knew how to properly respond- following the push to a controlled fall, roll, or other redirection- you'd be fine. Sometimes the overreaction is the problem.

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#38
post #14
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.

Yeah - but that is kind of special case when talking about the problem with infections. It does not justify "All sickness".

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#39
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone pushes you, and you start swinging your arms wildly to balance yourself, but end up falling in a different direction - why did you fall?

If you took falling lessons as a kid, and you knew how to properly respond- following the push to a controlled fall, roll, or other redirection- you'd be fine. Sometimes the overreaction is the problem.

What are falling lessons? Judo?

Re: Why Does Inflammation Seem to Underlie All Sickness?

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you took falling lessons as a kid, and you knew how to properly respond- following the push to a controlled fall, roll, or other redirection- you'd be fine. Sometimes the overreaction is the problem.

What are falling lessons? Judo?

Judo is good for learning to fall, otherwise not that much IMO.
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