Unlike acute inflammation (what happens when you cut your finger or fight off a cold), chronic low-grade inflammation is silent, persistent, and systemic.
Functional medicine views inflammation not as a diagnosis but as a warning sign that something in the body’s internal ecosystem is out of balance.
This guide breaks down:
•How inflammation affects each body system
•What current research says
•Common triggers
•Gut repair strategies
•Anti-inflammatory foods
•How toxins and environment contribute
•Functional medicine approaches to lowering inflammation
What Is Chronic Inflammation?
Acute inflammation is short-term and protective. Chronic inflammation is long-term, low-level immune activation that damages tissues over time.
According to research published in major medical journals (e.g., Nature Reviews Immunology and The Lancet), chronic inflammation contributes to more than 50% of global deaths through diseases such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune illness, metabolic syndrome, neurodegeneration, and cancer.
How Chronic Inflammation Develops:
1.Immune system gets triggered repeatedly
2.The body produces cytokines (chemical messengers that signal inflammation)
3.This becomes a constant loop, even when no immediate threat is present
4.Damage occurs in cells, mitochondria, and tissues