INFLAMMATION

It's a hot topic-for good reason. Your body's amazing ability to heal itself can go haywire, sparking health troubles from small to large. But you can get this fire under control: Here's everything you need to know.

WHAT IS inflammation, anyway?

BY MARISA COHEN

INFLAMMATION" IS A WORD YOU HEAR EVERYWHERE there are foods and gummies and supplements that claim to fight it, and you could fill an entire wall with books on the subject. But we'll admit that it can still be very hard to figure out what the word actually means.

Inflammation is actually helpful and necessary at least in its acute (or temporary) phase. Without this biological defense system, we wouldn't be able to heal from injuries or fight off infections, says Erica L. Johnson, Ph.D., an associate professor of microbiology, biochemistry, and immunology at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. "Most of the time this is good, and it helps the body recover," Johnson explains.

Let's say, for example, that you accidentally cut your hand while slicing a bagel. First, your body releases chemicals that act as a kind of red alert; white blood cells respond to this warning and flood the area of your body that needs help (think of a microscopic SWAT team rushing in to fight off the bad guys and protect the injured parts). This can cause pain, swelling, redness, and warmth-all conditions you can see or feel and ones that help your body heal and return to homeostasis, or a state of balance.

When you're fighting off a bacterial infection or an allergen, this protective process happens inside cells, where you can't see it. "An inflammatory response activates your immune system to fight the infection, and that's how you get better," says Sadiya Khan, M.D., Magerstadt Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. After white blood cells neutralize the problem, acute inflammation starts to go away, usually within a few days. Soon enough your wound heals, your fever breaks, and you feel better.