KEEP INFLAMMATION UNDER CONTROL

INFLAMMATION IS A CONVOLUTED BIOLOGICAL PROCESS. IT INVOLVES PROTEINS and enzymes like “interleukins,” “haptoglobin,” “fibrinogen,” and so many other medical terms it can make your head spin. But at least all of these various biomarkers make detecting inflammation easy. Indeed, a simple blood test is all you need to test your body’s inflammation levels, and your doctor has a few of these to choose from.

One of the simplest is an erythrocyte sedimentation rate test, or “sed rate” test for short. The science behind the sed rate test is relatively simple. Your body is full of red blood cells; when blood is drawn and placed in an upright tube, those cells will gradually float to the bottom. The end result looks like a fancy cocktail, with red liquid (the blood cells) on the bottom and yellow liquid (blood plasma) separated on top. A sed rate test will measure how quickly those red blood cells settle. When your body is fighting inflammation, your blood cells will clump together and drop much more quickly resulting in a higher sed rate. It’s worth noting, however, that this test is non-specific: It doesn’t explain where, or why, the inflammation is happening.

Another common inflammation check is to test for rheumatoid factor, an autoantibody that correlates with elevated inflammation and which, in high quantities, can attack healthy tissue. The test for rheumatoid factor is a little more specific than a sed rate test, you’ll typically only score high/positive when your body is actively fighting an autoimmune disease or chronic infection. It’s commonly associated with Sjogren’s syndrome, lupus, and (as the name suggests) rheumatoid arthritis.

Regardless of which test your doctor chooses, they’re effective ways to measure for both acute and chronic inflammation, so you can check your progress as you make positive lifestyle changes. As you start treating inflammation and your scores start to slide into the normal range, you may expect to feel lighter in mood and more energetic and well rested, and your body will hurt less. You may also feel a sense of tremendous accomplishment, as you give your body the greatest gift of all–a healthy future.