[moh_maya]

Inflammation is typically experienced when the body is responding to an infection or injury. It is a normal, and as per current understanding, a necessary part of the body's immune response.

The Cleveland clinic has a nice, informative page if you want more information [0]

[edited to add]

The response of the innate immune system to the infectious agent / injury is what causes inflammation - i.e., for instance, fever, swelling, etc. It is a very very complex multi-cascade process, but one of the first responses to an injury, for instance, is the release of signalling molecules that results in localised swelling, slightly elevated temperature (which makes the tissue a little more inhospitable to bacteria / viruses), etc. all of which serve as the front line defense. <This is a severe over-simplification> Wikipedia has a good explanation that goes into the roles and triggers of the inflammatory response. [1]

Acute inflammation in response to infections and injuries is a good thing, and from everything we know, it is a necessary part of the immune response. The challenge is when the same inflammation response is mis-directed to target the body - for instance, in rheumatoid arthritis, and other inflammation related auto-immune disorders.

[0] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/21660-inflamm...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflammation?useskin=vector

[andai]

The latest Kurzgesagd video on exercise seemed to imply that (excepting sudden changes in activity level) caloric burn rate is constant regardless of lifestyle, but if you are sedentary, the "excess" calories are burned "unproductively" (e.g. increased inflammation).

So this seems to imply excess calories are a cause of chronic inflammation.

Also, the ketogenic diet has been shown to significantly reduce inflammation, though I'm not sure if that's from reducing carbs, or reducing something else associated with high carb intake.

[Retric]

> caloric burn rate is constant regardless of lifestyle

This is obviously false as stated, extreme athletes consume vastly more calories than sedentary people of their same weight. Phelps was rather famous for a 10,000+ calorie per day diet but even just manual labors need significantly more calories.

I’m assuming there’s some unspecified criteria such as while sleeping?

[biomcgary]

Glucose and fructose will react non-specifically with proteins in the body, particularly when present in excess. These non-specific reactions are recognized as foreign and/or defective, which triggers inflammation. The apply named RAGE protein is one mediator of this response (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAGE_(receptor)).

HbA1C results from the non-enzymatic reaction between glucose and hemoglobin. It serves as a measure of your long-term glucose level and is elevated in diabetics.

Low carb diets dramatically reduce this source of inflammation.

[qorrect]

This also lines up with something said in the book Lifespan about fasting reducing inflammation.

[tempsy]

There is a huge difference between inflammation in response to injury and chronic inflammation caused by lifestyle choices like poor diet.

[pjc50]

> caused by lifestyle choices like poor diet

If you can prove this .. which things specifically is this linked to? There is a lot of completely terrible nutrition "science" out there.

[Teever]

That's missing the point. If this technique can result in longer lives for people with both good diets and not, it is a genuinely novel innovation in human life span that can't be replaced with better diet alone.

[jvanderbot]

Chronic inflammation is bad. Is chronic inflammation always caused by auto-immune? Or is it also caused by things like pollutants, poor diet, or other "first world" problems?

I ask because I used to be very concerned with particulate matter (I still am, but I used to too), and it seemed a big problem with that was it triggering inflammation.

[andai]

It's been a while since I looked into this, but diet is a major factor with inflammation. Sugars, seed oils and grain-fed dairy. (Also if you eat the grains yourself!) Keto lowers it, caloric restriction lowers it (conversely excess calories coupled with sedentary lifestyle increase it), intermittent fasting lowers it.

I forget about exercise, I think it's a case of temporarily increasing it (hours) and then lowering it long-term.

[doe_eyes]

I don't think there's a pattern suggesting that. Many autoimmune diseases are more prevalent in less polluted parts of the world. The strongest links appear to be genetic, in that some diseases (e.g., Sjogren's syndrome) are clearly more common in people of certain geographic descents.

[jb1991]

Asthma is another example of a terrible problem caused by chronic inflammation.