4 ms·

From my understanding of exercise and inflammation, is that inflammation is the bodies stress & repair mechanism kicking in as a result of muscular damage etc f

From my understanding of exercise and inflammation, is that inflammation is the bodies stress & repair mechanism kicking in as a result of muscular damage etc from exercise. The acute inflammation following exercise is the body signalling to repair itself, hopefully resulting in adaptations that make the muscles and surrounding tissue stronger. Following that your body in theory is better equipped to cope with future exercise/movement stresses, therefore attributable to reduced inflammation long term. This is why there is somewhat of a debate in the exercise community around the true benefit of ice baths, hot/cold plunges, compression leggings etc. Whilst they feel good, these work to try to reduce inflammation, which is not necessarily what we want after exercise. There is a time and a place for reducing inflammation.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago
In my thesis-length comment above (below) I said that inflammation is a symptom and not a cause. Some causes are 'good', ie. exercise, and some causes are bad, ie. allergies. I treat the pain / inflammation from 'good' causes as a well-earned reward (if God exists, this is one of its greatest practical jokes). Treating inflammation from 'bad' causes (outside of genetic disposition) is probably a bad thing in that it's treating symptoms, not trying to find the cause, and in fact actively supressing the ability find the cause. Edit: added 'Treating' in front of the last sentence so it makes sense.
- NoPicklez 3y ago
  Yep, I agree, inflammation is a symptom not a cause. (I also commented on your comment). My comment just above doesn't describe it as a cause, but a symptom, in this case muscular damage from exercise. In your case, it was due to S1 L5 discs pulling on each other during exercise, which is different. But nonetheless, inflammation brought upon as a symptom of something else. Which goes for almost everything else in the body when inflammation arises.
- hhjinks 3y ago
  >Treating inflammation from 'bad' causes (outside of genetic disposition) is probably a bad I'm pretty sure most asthmatics would disagree.
  - lazide 3y ago
    Albuterol doesn’t treat inflammation directly, but is absolutely critical for emergency management. And control meds for children seem to (oddly) have zero actual benefit in controlled studies almost every time. But do seem to work. Which is pretty odd, no? There is a lot we don’t know about asthma. Exercise and stress reduction do seem to help, but also not in obvious ways.
    - hhjinks 3y ago
      Well, asthma is multifaceted. You can have an obstruction caused by muscles contracting, or by mucus from inflammation. In either case, dilating the muscles, which is what albuterol does, can give you better air flow, lessening your perceptible symptoms. You'd still want a corticosteorid-based medicide to treat the inflammation if you have that kind of asthma, though, as the chronic inflammation can worsen your illness over time, hence my original comment.
      - thaumasiotes 3y ago
        > dilating the muscles, which is what albuterol does Dilating the muscles? Dilation would normally be something that happens to holes (meaning they get larger); muscles can only tense and relax.
        lazide 3y ago
        How do you think the bodies holes get smaller and larger? And do you know what bronchioles and alveoli are? If not, they’re what start closing up.
        thaumasiotes 3y ago
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  This is how I tend to feel about fevers. Fevers are commonly treated with fever suppressants, which doesn't make a lot of sense if you consider that the fever is something that you do to an infection, not something that the infection does to you.
  - NoPicklez 3y ago
    The slight difference here in some cases (few) a fever can go too far and if your body temperature goes too high you can suffer organ failure. Now whilst this isn't overly common for the average cold or flu this is where medication would be required. For the average person and the average fever, people don't really need to take fever suppressants but they do often allow people to go back to work sooner.
  - saiya-jin 3y ago
    Some inflammation is good to repair damaged stuff, be it muscles, tendons etc. Very often I see this in gym freaks or rock climbers, fighting inflammation at all costs without understanding underlying processes. Or in case of infection move temperature further away from optimal one for breeding foreign bacteria/viruses, at that scale and numbers its statistics game so any advantage, even by just raising overall temperature is acceptable. The problem is our bodies sometimes go haywire and don't regulate properly.
- scaryclam 3y ago
  Inflammation can also inhibit finding the cause of an issue, so saying you shouldn't treat it is probably a poor blanket statement to make.
WalterBright 3y ago
Since our bodies evolved to produce inflammation, it must have some positive effects. Chronic inflammation, however, can very well be deleterious.
- ImHereToVote 3y ago
  It protects the organism from infection long enough for it to reproduce. Probably why inflammation increases progressively with age. It isn't for longevity.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    We're programmed to die anyway because it's good for the next generation. Dying makes room for the next generation, and kills off the parasites accumulated in our bodies that have adapted too well to living off of us. The reason humans live to be grandparents is the grandparents' role is to take care of the grandkids while the parents work.
hinkley 3y ago
I think it's quite likely that, like the circadian rhythm, your body needs a steady drumbeat of inputs to regulate itself and without them disregulation can set in and spiral.
agumonkey 3y ago
I'm trying to find an "elastic theory of inflammation" .. i don't know how this is called in medicine, basically what's the threshold of your body in its current state between appropriate amount of stress (hence the elastic term, your body can absorb said stress and go back to optimal function) and damaging levels of stress. For instance in a video someone talked about how 15 min of low effort legwork (gentle biking for instance) would be perfect to stimulate cartilage cell growth. This is also in the same landscape as hormesis (controverial or not).
- NoPicklez 3y ago
  I think we'd need to be clearer on the parameters and definitions of what damaging levels of stress are. You might be able to measure stressors applied to the body and then body the bodies inflammation markers (new field). 15 minutes of low effort legwork might stimulate cartilage cell growth. But what's to say that an hour or so of low effort legwork (biking) isn't beneficial to the bodies endurance systems. Both of which the body would recover from and go back to optimal function. Even hard workouts have their place in developing a healthy body, of which your body returns to optimal function through the bodies recovery processes.
  - agumonkey 3y ago
    Sure but it's important to be able to map it based on your body current capabilities. Of course I'm biased, I'm asking because my body now can only operate in a narrow range of effort, and I cannot risk overburdening it or I pay a hefty price. So knowing what's the optimal kind and amount would help me stabilize or even recover.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

In my thesis-length comment above (below) I said that inflammation is a symptom and not a cause. Some causes are 'good', ie. exercise, and some causes are bad, ie. allergies. I treat the pain / inflammation from 'good' causes as a well-earned reward (if God exists, this is one of its greatest practical jokes). Treating inflammation from 'bad' causes (outside of genetic disposition) is probably a bad thing in that it's treating symptoms, not trying to find the cause, and in fact actively supressing the ability find the cause. Edit: added 'Treating' in front of the last sentence so it makes sense.

NoPicklez 3y ago
Yep, I agree, inflammation is a symptom not a cause. (I also commented on your comment). My comment just above doesn't describe it as a cause, but a symptom, in this case muscular damage from exercise. In your case, it was due to S1 L5 discs pulling on each other during exercise, which is different. But nonetheless, inflammation brought upon as a symptom of something else. Which goes for almost everything else in the body when inflammation arises.
hhjinks 3y ago
>Treating inflammation from 'bad' causes (outside of genetic disposition) is probably a bad I'm pretty sure most asthmatics would disagree.
- lazide 3y ago
  Albuterol doesn’t treat inflammation directly, but is absolutely critical for emergency management. And control meds for children seem to (oddly) have zero actual benefit in controlled studies almost every time. But do seem to work. Which is pretty odd, no? There is a lot we don’t know about asthma. Exercise and stress reduction do seem to help, but also not in obvious ways.
  - hhjinks 3y ago
    Well, asthma is multifaceted. You can have an obstruction caused by muscles contracting, or by mucus from inflammation. In either case, dilating the muscles, which is what albuterol does, can give you better air flow, lessening your perceptible symptoms. You'd still want a corticosteorid-based medicide to treat the inflammation if you have that kind of asthma, though, as the chronic inflammation can worsen your illness over time, hence my original comment.
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      > dilating the muscles, which is what albuterol does Dilating the muscles? Dilation would normally be something that happens to holes (meaning they get larger); muscles can only tense and relax.
      - lazide 3y ago
        How do you think the bodies holes get smaller and larger? And do you know what bronchioles and alveoli are? If not, they’re what start closing up.
        thaumasiotes 3y ago
thaumasiotes 3y ago
This is how I tend to feel about fevers. Fevers are commonly treated with fever suppressants, which doesn't make a lot of sense if you consider that the fever is something that you do to an infection, not something that the infection does to you.
- NoPicklez 3y ago
  The slight difference here in some cases (few) a fever can go too far and if your body temperature goes too high you can suffer organ failure. Now whilst this isn't overly common for the average cold or flu this is where medication would be required. For the average person and the average fever, people don't really need to take fever suppressants but they do often allow people to go back to work sooner.
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  Some inflammation is good to repair damaged stuff, be it muscles, tendons etc. Very often I see this in gym freaks or rock climbers, fighting inflammation at all costs without understanding underlying processes. Or in case of infection move temperature further away from optimal one for breeding foreign bacteria/viruses, at that scale and numbers its statistics game so any advantage, even by just raising overall temperature is acceptable. The problem is our bodies sometimes go haywire and don't regulate properly.
scaryclam 3y ago
Inflammation can also inhibit finding the cause of an issue, so saying you shouldn't treat it is probably a poor blanket statement to make.

WalterBright 3y ago

Since our bodies evolved to produce inflammation, it must have some positive effects. Chronic inflammation, however, can very well be deleterious.

ImHereToVote 3y ago
It protects the organism from infection long enough for it to reproduce. Probably why inflammation increases progressively with age. It isn't for longevity.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  We're programmed to die anyway because it's good for the next generation. Dying makes room for the next generation, and kills off the parasites accumulated in our bodies that have adapted too well to living off of us. The reason humans live to be grandparents is the grandparents' role is to take care of the grandkids while the parents work.

hinkley 3y ago

I think it's quite likely that, like the circadian rhythm, your body needs a steady drumbeat of inputs to regulate itself and without them disregulation can set in and spiral.

agumonkey 3y ago

I'm trying to find an "elastic theory of inflammation" .. i don't know how this is called in medicine, basically what's the threshold of your body in its current state between appropriate amount of stress (hence the elastic term, your body can absorb said stress and go back to optimal function) and damaging levels of stress. For instance in a video someone talked about how 15 min of low effort legwork (gentle biking for instance) would be perfect to stimulate cartilage cell growth. This is also in the same landscape as hormesis (controverial or not).

NoPicklez 3y ago
I think we'd need to be clearer on the parameters and definitions of what damaging levels of stress are. You might be able to measure stressors applied to the body and then body the bodies inflammation markers (new field). 15 minutes of low effort legwork might stimulate cartilage cell growth. But what's to say that an hour or so of low effort legwork (biking) isn't beneficial to the bodies endurance systems. Both of which the body would recover from and go back to optimal function. Even hard workouts have their place in developing a healthy body, of which your body returns to optimal function through the bodies recovery processes.
- agumonkey 3y ago
  Sure but it's important to be able to map it based on your body current capabilities. Of course I'm biased, I'm asking because my body now can only operate in a narrow range of effort, and I cannot risk overburdening it or I pay a hefty price. So knowing what's the optimal kind and amount would help me stabilize or even recover.