Inflammation: What It Is, How It Affects Your Body, and What You Can Do

When your body gets hurt or infected, inflammation, the body’s protective response to injury, infection, or irritation. Also known as the immune system’s alarm system, it’s meant to heal you—swelling, redness, heat, and pain are all signs it’s working. But when this system doesn’t shut off, inflammation turns from helper to villain. That’s when it starts damaging healthy tissue, fueling conditions like autoimmune disease, a group of disorders where the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, or inflammatory bowel disease, a chronic condition causing gut inflammation, including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. It’s not just arthritis or a sore throat—it’s behind fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, and even some types of heart disease.

Chronic inflammation doesn’t always scream for attention. You might not feel a red, swollen knee, but you could be dragging through the day from constant low-grade inflammation. That’s why fatigue in autoimmune disease isn’t just about being tired—it’s your body burning energy fighting itself. Same with thyroid eye disease: the bulging, painful eyes aren’t just cosmetic—they’re the result of inflammation behind the eyeball. Even when you’re treating symptoms like diarrhea in IBD, the root cause is still inflammation. And while drugs like loperamide help manage the symptom, they don’t touch the inflammation driving it. That’s where steroids, biologics, and other targeted therapies come in—they don’t just mask pain, they calm the fire inside.

What’s surprising is how many everyday problems tie back to this invisible process. St. John’s Wort might help your mood, but it can interfere with drugs that control inflammation-related conditions like transplant rejection or blood thinning. Even something as simple as sun exposure can trigger inflammation in your eyes, leading to pterygium—a growth that can blur your vision. And if you’re managing diabetes or high blood pressure, inflammation is often the hidden link making those conditions harder to control. The good news? You’re not powerless. From diet and stress management to specific medications and lifestyle changes, there are real ways to reduce it. Below, you’ll find clear, practical guides on how inflammation shows up in different conditions, what treatments work, and how to avoid common mistakes when trying to manage it.