Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 01/05/2013 20:30:01
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Greg Donelly asked the Naked Scientists:
If inflammation is a natural part of the healing process why are we given anti inflammatory medication?
What do you think?
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Inflammation is an essential part of our defence system to prevent infection and to alert us to damage within a tissue. But if the process becomes chronic it can damage tissues. The symptoms of acute inflammation can also be unpleasant, so we take drugs - like paracetamol or aspirin - to reduce the intensity of the process. The idea is to mask the symptoms without significantly impairing the repair and immune processes needed to protect us. But overuse of anti-inflammatories will carry side effects. Steroids (glucocorticoids) - which are immunosuppressive - in excessive doses will result in a person developing opportunistic infection.
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Inflammation is part of the healing process. Tiny blood vessels (capillaries) become leaky and allow white blood cells, oxygen and nutrients to infiltrate the area that is damaged. This is good. Swelling presses on nerves and inflammatory chemicals also stimulate nerve endings in the damaged area, causing pain, to keep you from using the injured part of your body. This is also good. When inflammation is extreme, when swelling compresses bigger blood vessels, damages healthy tissue, and causes a lot of pain all of the time, this is not good. Sometimes our natural healing responses go overboard, so to speak. Anti-inflammatory medications can help. And the nice thing about them, is they work at the site of the injury, rather than affecting the brain's perception of pain (like narcotics). Which means, anti-inflammatories can reduce your pain, without f*cking you up mentally or causing addiction.