Dolor, rubor, tumor, and calor are Latin names for pain, redness, swelling, and warmth respectively. All of them are found in inflammation on the body surface.
External Inflammation
If a hot liquid spills on your skin. Inflammation follows with some four-letter expletives. A first-degree burn is when the skin surface gets red. A second-degree burn is diagnosed if a blister is present.
First and second-degree burns are memorable. Pain, blisters and an ugly peeling of the skin reminds you to be more careful next time with anything hot. The good news is that after several days, the skin will heal.
However, if the skin gets exposed to the thermal injury multiple times before it heals, the burn gets deeper and deeper until it worsens to become a third-degree burn. Third-degree burns are mercifully painless because the nerves for sensation on the skin are all burnt. By this time, the treatment will be hospitalization in a burn unit, antibiotics, and a skin graft.
Internal Inflammation
In the case of inflammation inside the body caused by high blood sugar (hyperglycemia), smoking, dyslipidemia, and trans fats, the damage happens within the lining of the blood vessels (endothelium), and yet there is no pain. No redness or swelling is seen nor is any warmth felt. There is no awareness of the ongoing damage inside.
Sugary foods make us feel good. Why is that? Because sugar causes an increase in dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine makes us “feel good.” And when something satisfies a craving, you want to do it over and over. That is why sugar is addictive. It makes us want to eat more.
The sweetness that the sugar brings is associated with many emotionally positive events all through our lives. Birthdays, reunions, graduations, weddings, dates, and anniversaries. All occasions are punctuated with a sweet dessert. Sweets are never associated with pain and harm to our bodies.
Continuous exposure to high levels of glucose and insulin secondary to a high carbohydrate diet leads to chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation manifests as insulin resistance, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis, heart disease, and strokes to mention a few.
Is it any wonder now why all these diseases of chronic inflammation are widespread?
Blood tests to detect chronic inflammation
These blood tests are inflammatory markers and can be ordered by your physicians for you.
Being aware of the concept of chronic inflammation internally and its consequences is an excellent first step to prevent, detect, and correct.
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