Long-term or chronic inflammation is a condition that can contribute to a wide range of chronic diseases. While acute inflammation is typically easy to notice, there are plenty of instances where chronic inflammation may go undetected. Thankfully, there are a variety of blood tests that can detect chronic inflammation as well as a variety of treatments for reducing inflammation in the body.
To help you determine if you should get tested for chronic inflammation, let’s take a look at what chronic inflammation is, the risk factors that it presents, and the common types of blood tests used to detect chronic inflammation.
What is Chronic Inflammation?
Inflammation is a vital part of the body’s immune response to illness and injury and plays a key role in the healing process. Sometimes, though, the immune system doesn’t know when to stop. (https://lsu79.org/) When inflammation lasts for prolonged periods of months or years long after the illness or injury that triggered it has healed, it is known as chronic or long-term inflammation and poses a number of health risks.
What Are the Risk Factors of Chronic Inflammation?
Over time, chronic inflammation can cause your immune system to attack healthy cells and organs, leading to serious risk factors. Potential health consequences of long-term inflammation include:
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Cancer
- Crohn’s disease
- Ulcerative colitis
Despite what some natural health resources like to claim, inflammation is not the end-all-be-all cause of these conditions. However, chronic inflammation can certainly increase your risk of developing these conditions if left undetected and untreated.
Blood Tests for Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is sometimes referred to as a silent killer since it doesn’t tend to manifest any physical symptoms. The good news, though, is that there are several different types of blood tests that can be used to detect chronic inflammation. This includes blood tests such as:
- Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (sed rate or ESR): This test entails measuring how quickly red blood cells fall to the bottom of a vertical test tube. When inflammation is present, red blood cells will fall faster. Typical ranges for this test will vary from lab to lab, but a normal result tends to be 20 mm/hr or less, with a result of 100 mm/hr or more being considered abnormally high.
- C-reactive protein (CRP): CRP is a protein produced in the liver that tends to rise in the presence of inflammation. A normal level for this protein is less than 3 mg/L, but body-wide inflammation can cause CRP levels to rise to 100 mg/L or more.
- Ferritin: Ferritin is a protein that indicates the amount of iron stored in the body and is most commonly measured to determine whether an anemic patient is iron deficient. Ferritin levels will rise when there is too much iron in the body but will also rise in the presence of inflammation. Typical ranges for ferritin levels vary from lab to lab and tend to be higher for men. However, a typical normal range is 20 to 200 mcg/L.
- Fibrinogen: Fibrinogen is a protein that is typically measured to evaluate the blood clotting system, but since its levels tend to rise when inflammation is present, measuring fibrinogen levels is used to detect chronic inflammation as well. Normal fibrinogen levels are 200 to 400 mg/dL.
Should You Get Tested for Chronic Inflammation?
If signs of inflammation such as pain, redness, swelling, and heat around the area of the injury persist long after your injury has healed then you certainly see a physician and get tested for chronic inflammation. However, chronic inflammation isn’t always triggered by an obvious injury, nor does it always produce obvious symptoms.
Given the serious health consequences that chronic inflammation can cause even if it does not produce any obvious signs or symptoms, it is recommended that everyone undergo blood testing that includes testing for inflammation.
How is Chronic Inflammation Treated?
Chronic inflammation can be treated with a combination of medications and lifestyle changes. Corticosteroids such as Cortisol are the most common type of medication prescribed for treating chronic inflammation. Lifestyle changes such as eating anti-inflammatory foods and avoiding inflammatory foods, getting plenty of exercise, and managing your stress can also reduce inflammation in the body.At Bikham Healthcare, we want to help keep all of our readers as healthy as possible – and preventing chronic inflammation is a key ingredient in the recipe for a long and healthy life. Next time you meet with your physician, be sure to ask if blood testing for chronic inflammation is something that you should consider.
