Ever find yourself asking: What exactly IS inflammation and what does it actually mean for ME?
Inflammation is one of those words we hear everywhere in the health and wellness world.
We’re told that certain foods are “inflammatory”, that we should follow an “anti-inflammatory diet”, that stress causes inflammation and that chronic inflammation is linked with many of the health conditions we’re trying to prevent as we get older.
But what does inflammation actually mean?
Is it something we can feel? Is it something circulating in our bloodstream? And if inflammation is supposedly so harmful, why does the body produce it in the first place?
The truth is that inflammation isn’t inherently bad. In fact, it’s an essential part of our immune system and our body’s ability to protect and repair itself.
The issue is not inflammation itself, but what happens when inflammatory activity becomes persistent and doesn’t resolve appropriately.
In this episode of the Empowered Perimenopause podcast, I’m breaking down what inflammation actually is, the difference between acute and chronic inflammation, how blood sugar and metabolic health fit into the picture, and why all of this becomes particularly relevant during midlife.
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is part of the body’s natural defence and repair response.
Imagine you accidentally cut your finger while preparing dinner. You’ve damaged tissue and potentially allowed bacteria to enter the body.
Your immune system needs to respond.
Blood flow to the area increases, blood vessels become more permeable and immune cells and other substances involved in defence and repair are recruited to the damaged tissue.
This creates the familiar signs of inflammation: redness, warmth, swelling and pain.
We often think of those symptoms as the problem, but they’re actually part of the body’s response to the problem.
Inflammation helps the body deal with potential pathogens, remove damaged cells and begin repairing the tissue.
In other words, inflammation is not something our body is mistakenly doing to us.
We need it.
Acute vs chronic inflammation: what’s the difference?
One of the most important distinctions to understand is the difference between acute and chronic inflammation.
Acute inflammation is generally relatively short-lived and has a purpose.
You cut yourself, sprain your ankle or develop an infection. Your immune system mounts an inflammatory response, deals with the problem and then, ideally, that response resolves.
Inflammatory processes are also involved in some of the beneficial adaptations we experience through exercise. When we challenge our muscles through strength training, for example, inflammatory signalling forms part of the subsequent repair and adaptation process.
So our goal should never be to eliminate inflammation altogether.
We want a body that can switch inflammation on when it is needed and appropriately regulate and resolve it afterwards.
Chronic inflammation is different.
What is chronic low-grade inflammation?
When we talk about inflammation in relation to long-term health, we’re often referring to chronic low-grade systemic inflammation.
Unlike an infected cut or sprained ankle, there may be no obvious red, hot or swollen area of the body.
Instead, relatively low levels of inflammatory activity can persist over time.
One way of thinking about it is to imagine a fire alarm.
If there is a fire, you absolutely want the alarm to sound. You want the emergency response to happen, the fire to be dealt with and the danger removed.
But afterwards, you want the alarm to stop.
Chronic low-grade inflammation is a little like having the alarm system continuing to hum away quietly in the background.
It’s an oversimplification of an incredibly complex biological process, of course, but it helps illustrate why inflammation itself isn’t the enemy, persistent inflammatory activity is what we’re more concerned about.
Over the long term, chronic low-grade inflammation is associated with a range of age-related and metabolic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
What actually happens in the body during inflammation?
Inflammation isn’t a substance floating around inside the body that we somehow need to “flush out”.
It’s a biological process involving the immune system, blood vessels, tissues and numerous chemical messengers.
Some of those messengers are called cytokines.
You may have encountered names such as IL-6 or TNF-alpha. These molecules are involved in communication between cells and help coordinate immune and inflammatory responses.
You may also have heard of C-reactive protein, or CRP, particularly if you’ve had blood tests.
CRP is produced primarily by the liver, and levels can rise in response to inflammatory signalling. This means it can be useful as a marker of inflammation, but CRP itself isn’t inflammation and an elevated result doesn’t necessarily tell us what is causing the inflammatory response.
An infection, injury, surgery or inflammatory health condition, for example, could all potentially affect inflammatory markers.
Inflammation is therefore much more complex than simply being “high” or “low”.
What causes chronic inflammation?
There is no single cause of chronic low-grade inflammation.
This is where some of the messaging we see online can become overly simplistic.
It’s very easy to label individual foods as “inflammatory”, but our inflammatory health is influenced by a much bigger picture.
Factors that can contribute include:
- Smoking
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Physical inactivity
- Poor sleep
- Long-term psychological stress
- Certain infections and health conditions
- Dietary patterns
- Metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance
- Excess visceral body fat
- Ageing itself
Visceral fat is particularly interesting because adipose tissue isn’t simply an inactive storage site for excess energy.
It’s biologically active tissue capable of producing and releasing signalling molecules, including molecules involved in inflammatory pathways.
This is one of the reasons body composition and metabolic health can influence chronic inflammatory activity.
Can blood sugar spikes cause inflammation?
There is an important relationship between blood glucose, oxidative stress and inflammation — but this is an area where nuance really matters.
Your blood glucose is supposed to rise after you eat carbohydrates.
Eating a bowl of oats, a banana or some potatoes and experiencing a rise in glucose afterwards is normal physiology. A completely flat blood glucose line is not the goal.
What we’re more concerned about is repeated excessive glucose excursions or prolonged elevations in blood glucose, particularly in people with insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes.
Hyperglycaemia can increase the production of reactive oxygen species, contributing to oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress and inflammation are closely connected, and excessive oxidative stress can activate inflammatory signalling pathways.
Over time, impaired glucose regulation, insulin resistance, oxidative stress and chronic low-grade inflammation can therefore interact with one another.
This is one reason why supporting blood sugar regulation is about far more than avoiding an afternoon energy slump.
It’s part of looking after our long-term metabolic health.
Fortunately, that doesn’t require us to become frightened of carbohydrates.
Eating carbohydrates alongside protein, fibre and healthy fats, choosing minimally processed carbohydrate sources most of the time, exercising regularly, maintaining muscle mass, strength training, walking after meals and supporting good sleep can all help with healthy glucose regulation.
The aim isn’t to stop blood glucose from rising.
It’s to support the body’s ability to regulate it effectively.
Why does inflammation matter in perimenopause and menopause?
There are several reasons inflammation becomes particularly interesting during midlife.
Ageing itself is associated with an increase in chronic low-grade inflammatory activity, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “inflammaging”.
At the same time, oestrogen interacts with the immune system and inflammatory signalling, meaning the hormonal changes of the menopausal transition may also influence inflammatory biology.
But it would be far too simplistic to say that menopause causes inflammation.
Midlife is a time when several factors can converge.
Body composition can change, with a greater tendency towards accumulating visceral abdominal fat.
Insulin sensitivity may change.
We naturally begin to lose muscle mass as we age unless we actively work to preserve it.
Sleep can become disrupted during perimenopause.
Our activity levels may change.
And for many women, midlife also comes with significant psychological and practical stress.
Research into menopause, adiposity and inflammatory markers is continuing to untangle the contribution of hormonal changes from changes in body composition and ageing itself.
The important point is that midlife gives us an excellent opportunity to pay attention to the factors we can influence.
What is “inflammaging”?
Inflammaging describes the chronic, low-grade inflammatory state associated with ageing.
This doesn’t mean that everybody becomes “inflamed” once they reach a certain birthday.
Rather, ageing is accompanied by changes in immune regulation and inflammatory signalling that are thought to contribute to the development of several age-related diseases.
Again, the aim isn’t to prevent our immune system from producing inflammation.
It’s to support healthy immune and metabolic function as we age.
And many of the lifestyle factors that support healthy ageing more broadly are the same ones associated with healthier inflammatory regulation.
How can we support healthy inflammatory regulation?
Despite the enormous market for “anti-inflammatory” products, supporting healthy inflammatory regulation doesn’t necessarily require a cupboard full of supplements.
Nutrition matters enormously, but rather than obsessing over individual “inflammatory” and “anti-inflammatory” foods, it’s far more useful to consider your overall dietary pattern.
Think about including plenty of:
- Colourful vegetables and fruit
- Beans and lentils
- Nuts and seeds
- Whole grains, where tolerated
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Oily fish and other sources of omega-3 fats
- Herbs and spices
- Fibre-rich foods
- Polyphenol-rich foods such as berries, cocoa, green tea, herbs and colourful plants
- Adequate protein
Essentially, this looks very similar to a varied, minimally processed, plant-rich Mediterranean-style way of eating.
And it can still contain cake, chocolate or your favourite bread.
One individual food doesn’t determine whether your overall diet is “inflammatory”.
Is an anti-inflammatory diet necessary?
I’m not particularly keen on the idea that we all need to follow a special “anti-inflammatory diet”.
For most people, it’s much more useful to focus on the fundamentals of a nutritious dietary pattern than to create another set of food rules.
And food is only part of the picture.
Regular movement matters.
Strength training and maintaining muscle matter enormously as we age.
Sleep matters.
Not smoking matters.
Keeping alcohol moderate matters.
Supporting metabolic health matters.
Finding ways to manage and recover from stress matters.
Oral health matters too, chronic gum disease is itself an inflammatory condition and is associated with wider systemic health.
And social connection, relationships and community shouldn’t be overlooked.
These things may not sound as exciting as the latest anti-inflammatory superfood or supplement, but they form the foundations of long-term health.
What about gut health and inflammation?
The gut and immune system are closely connected.
The gastrointestinal tract represents an enormous interface between our internal environment and everything entering the body through food and drink.
The intestinal barrier, gut microbiome and immune system interact constantly, and disturbances within these relationships can influence inflammatory signalling.
However, this is another area where sweeping claims are common.
Terms such as “gut inflammation”, “leaky gut” and even “gut health” itself can be used very loosely online.
So rather than squeezing such an enormous subject into a few paragraphs here, I’ll be dedicating another episode to a deceptively simple question:
What does “gut health” actually mean?
We’ll look at what a healthy gut really is, what the microbiome does, the intestinal barrier, and what we can genuinely do to support our gut health.
Can you tell if your body is inflamed?
You may have seen social media posts listing supposed “signs your body is inflamed”, including symptoms such as:
Fatigue. Brain fog. Bloating. Headaches. Joint pain. Poor sleep. Difficulty losing weight.
The problem is that these are all extremely non-specific symptoms.
They can occur for many different reasons.
Feeling tired doesn’t automatically mean you have chronic inflammation. Neither does bloating, struggling with your weight or waking up during the night.
Inflammatory processes may be involved in some circumstances, but simply labelling a collection of symptoms as “inflammation” doesn’t tell us what is actually causing them.
If symptoms are persistent or unexplained, it’s much more useful to investigate their potential causes than to assume that your body is simply “inflamed”.
The bottom line on inflammation in midlife
Inflammation isn’t the enemy.
It’s an essential part of our immune system and our ability to defend, repair and adapt.
Acute inflammation is normal and necessary.
What we’re more concerned about in relation to long-term health is persistent, chronic, low-grade inflammatory activity.
And supporting healthy inflammatory regulation doesn’t mean eliminating carbohydrates, banning sugar, avoiding every supposedly “inflammatory” food or trying to micromanage every biological process happening inside your body.
It means zooming out and looking at the bigger picture:
Your dietary pattern.
Your metabolic health.
Your blood sugar regulation.
Your muscle mass.
Your movement.
Your sleep.
Your stress.
Your alcohol intake.
Your oral and gut health.
Your relationships and social connection.
These are the foundations that matter.
So the next time you hear somebody say that a particular food, hormone or behaviour is “inflammatory”, ask yourself:
What do they actually mean by that?
Are they talking about acute inflammation?
Chronic low-grade inflammation?
An inflammatory disease?
A measurable inflammatory marker?
Or are they simply using the word “inflammation” because it sounds scary?
The more we understand the language being used around our health, the better equipped we are to make informed decisions — without fear, unnecessary restriction or wellness trends getting in the way.
Listen to the episode
In this episode of the Empowered Perimenopause podcast, I take you through inflammation in simple, understandable language — including what’s physically happening inside the body, how blood sugar and inflammation are connected, why inflammation becomes particularly relevant in midlife and what we can actually do to support our long-term health.
Listen to What Does “Inflammation” Actually Mean? And Why Does It Matter in Midlife? wherever you usually listen to the Empowered Perimenopause podcast.
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