Inflammation comes in two forms: acute or chronic. The acute type takes place as an initial response of the body to harmful stimuli. It involves the mobilization of plasma (the yellow-colored liquid component of blood) and white blood cells from the blood into the injured tissue, as just described. That’s okay. You want that to happen.
Then there is chronic (prolonged) inflammation. That you don’t want.Chronic inflammation means a progressive shift in the type of activity going on at the site of inflammation. You get simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue, but a harmful free-radical encroachment into healthy, surrounding territory. The destruction derby continues, and it can seriously harm you.
Free radicals obviously have starring roles in the immune response, but problems arise when the process fails to wind down completely after the job is done. The good guys become bad guys on a rampage, ripping up innocent, healchy cells. Think of security dogs that snag the burglar and then go after their owner. They continue attacking and oxidize healthy tissue. The immune system gears switch into overdrive, sending in more white blood cells that produce more free radicals. This activity is why free radicals have a bad rap and why scientists unanimously agree that free-radical activity is at the basis of chronic disease and the aging process, particularly accelerated aging and limited life span.
We believe that normal inflammation veers out of control because of lost contact with the Earth. People are suffering from an electron deficiency -not enough free electrons on hand to satisfy the lust of rampaging free radicals. They continue to attack the adjacent neighborhood of healthy tissue in an ever-expanding vicious cycle. The nonstop attack mode generates an autoimmune response manifesting as chronic inflammation.The immune system has run amok, attacking its owner–you.
We’ve simplified the scenario, but this is basically how it works. A destructive process unfolds that can continue silently and indefinitely even for dozens of years and lead to so many intractable modern diseases. Earlier we mentioned the new scientific term for this- inflamm-aging. Now you can see where it comes from.