These types of inflammation that we’re all familiar with are associated with illnesses or injuries. But chances are you are not aware of a very significant inflammatory reaction - one that profoundly affects your health every day of your life and is not caused by illness or injury. I’m talking about inflammation at the cellular level, which is a normal process within the body.
To understand this kind of inflammation, it’s helpful to think about the trillions of cells in your body as tiny ‘power plants’, each working to maximum capacity to produce the energy to live a healthy life. This energy is generated in a complex chemical process which is involved in ‘Oxidation’ - or the process of other chemicals bonding with oxygen.
We all know that we need oxygen. Oxygen is essential to life on earth. The reason it is essential, ironically, is that it can also be ultimately dangerous and destructive. Oxygen is a highly unstable, highly reactive substance. All kinds of materials, when exposed to oxygen, will break down the bonds they have and form new bonds.
This process - Oxidation - releases a great deal of energy, but it also produces multiple waste products.
You’ve seen oxidation hundreds of times. It’s one of the most common and powerful chemical reactions on earth. Oxidation is what happens when you leave an iron pipe out in the rain and later you see it has rusted. It’s also what happens in your fireplace. You see a log consumed in flames and think about the soothing warmth and the bright light it produces. Now, think about all the ashes that are also left behind.
In your body, something very similar happens within your cells. Energy (like the heat and light in your fireplace) is produced by the cell’s oxidative reactions, but so is a ‘pile of ashes,’ so to speak. The waste products left behind are called oxidants. In many cases, they themselves can be corrosive and destructive - like the rust on that pipe I mentioned earlier. Even oxidants that are -not in and of themselves- harmful, they can really clog up the works in your cells, making cells less efficient and less able to produce energy. And because oxidation takes place wherever oxygen is present…not just in your cells…your body is under attack from without as well as within…from pollutants, food additives and other substances that can cause oxidative damage to the cells.
But as we all know, the body is amazing self-correcting system, so of course there are natural processes in place to combat the damage oxidation does. That’s where inflammation comes in. Inflammation is the natural result of a cascade of biochemical processes and reactions, the purpose of which is to undo the damage done by oxidation in the cell.
The bad news is, these processes are neither efficient nor effective. In point of fact, this cellular inflammation - which you can neither see nor feel - is at the source of many aspects of poor health. As a matter of fact, this inflammation response is the very core of the aging process.
