According to SELF Magazine, inflammation has a bad rap, both as an agent of pain and a risk factor for chronic illnesses like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Even the word itself sounds like something is going up in flames—and that’s pretty accurate: Inflammation is your body’s response to injury or infection, and triggers redness, swelling, heat, and loss of function, S. Louis Bridges Jr., MD, PhD, physician-in-chief and chief of the Division of Rheumatology at HSS explained. But that’s by design: You need a little fire to defend yourself. Where you can run into trouble is if those flames keep smoldering even after you’ve healed.

The key difference here is between acute and chronic inflammation. With the former, your immune cells detect a threat and spurt out substances that widen your blood vessels, allowing more blood (and immune cells) to get to the affected area—an essential process for fighting germs and recovering from physical trauma. After they’ve dealt with the danger, those cells typically retreat, and your symptoms die down. But with the long-lasting version of inflammation, that response keeps percolating. At low levels, it isn’t always something you’ll notice (though it may play a role in fatigue, GI issues, and joint pain); it might only be detectable via a blood test or skin biopsy, Dr. Bridges explained. Over time, however, the constant immune activity can damage tissues and put you at risk for those infamous inflammation-fueled diseases.

Read the full article at self.com.