In the comments section of last week’s post on inflammation, many of you expressed a desire for a post explaining how to know if one is actually suffering from systemic, chronic inflammation. I thought that was a great idea and decided to put the other followups on hold so I could tackle this one. Obviously, it’s easy to tell if you’ve got some acute inflammation going on – swelling, pain, heat radiating from a part of your body that’s suddenly assumed a rosy hue, and throbbing open wounds are all blatant indicators of the inflammatory process at work – but tests for markers of inflammation are not yet standard across most medical practices. With that in mind, I’ll be giving info on both objective markers for which you can test, as well as on the subjective markers I use on myself that you can “test” and use to evaluate your own level of inflammation.
Let’s get to it.
CRP, or C-Reactive Protein
CRP is a protein that binds with phosphocholine on dead and dying cells and bacteria in order to clear them from the body. It can always be found (and measured) in the bloodstream, but levels spike when inflammation is at hand. During acute inflammation caused by infection, for example, CRP can spike by up to 50,000-fold. CRP spikes due to acute inflammation peak at around 48 hours
THIS IS NOT ORIGINAL CONTENT, BUT RATHER AN ARTICLE I FOUND TO BE AWESOME AND INFORMATIVE.
I'm a 30 year old guy living in Somerville, MA. I work for Intuit QuickBase supporting customer success with the product. I'm a technology junkie with an insatiable appetite for learning about the latest trends and products in the market.
I've given up (for now) posting new original content, and am instead aggregating links to articles that I come across in my day to day reading. I hope you enjoy these finds!
Philip R. Powis | Simplypsquared.com has written 271 articles. See all articles by Philip R. Powis | Simplypsquared.com, or visit Philip R. Powis | Simplypsquared.com's website.
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Welcome to Simply P Squared! On this site you will find excerpts and links back to articles that I have found interesting and informative from around the web.
In the comments section of last week’s post on inflammation, many of you expressed a desire for a post explaining how to know if one is actually suffering from systemic, chronic inflammation. I thought that was a great idea and decided to put the other followups on hold so I could tackle this one. Obviously, it’s easy to tell if you’ve got some acute inflammation going on – swelling, pain, heat radiating from a part of your body that’s suddenly assumed a rosy hue, and throbbing open wounds are all blatant indicators of the inflammatory process at work – but tests for markers of inflammation are not yet standard across most medical practices. With that in mind, I’ll be giving info on both objective markers for which you can test, as well as on the subjective markers I use on myself that you can “test” and use to evaluate your own level of inflammation.
