38 | www.Ups tatePhys i c i ansSC . com | www.Hea l thL i nksUps tate. com THE GOOD: ACUTE INFLAMMATION You’re playing basketball and jam your middle finger. You suddenly experience pain, swelling, redness and heat, and your finger can’t bend or function normally. These are signs of acute inflammation, which comes on rapidly after an injury and lasts for a relatively short time. It is your body’s way of telling you that help is already at hand and repairs are underway. Other examples include turning an ankle, experiencing a gout attack or the response to pneumonia. In these instances, Dr. Gilkeson said the inflammation acts as a first-line defense for the body until further action can be taken. “The inflammation resolves with treatment of the gout and antibiotics for the pneumonia,” he said. And while the inflammation might seem serious in the moment, acute injuries would be a lot worse without it, said Dalal Akoury, M.D., founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center in Johnson City, Tennessee, which services the Greenville area in South Carolina. “Let's imagine you have an injury to your knee – within just a few moments the site will start to swell and may be slightly red and warm,” Dr. Akoury said. “This is a normal response as your body sends in extra blood and a variety of different cells to protect the injured structures and tissues.” Dr. Gilkeson added that injuries with acute inflammation will almost always heal on their own. “Inflammation at a site of an injury is needed to attract cells to fight the infection or cancer and to recruit the cells that will repair the damage,” he said. INFLAMMATION: THE GOOD AND THE BAD By L. C. Leach III INFLAMMATION – the name alone carries visions of redness, swelling, hurting bones and joints and a human body yelling for help.But inflammation is not only a friend to your body, it is the first sign of your body’s efforts to heal either an injury or illness. And your best chance of recovery begins with knowing which of its two types you have. “Inflammation overall is a good thing, as it helps the body to fight off infections and to heal wounds,” said Gary S. Gilkeson, M.D., a rheumatologist affiliated with the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “It becomes a bad thing when the inflammation gets out of control.”
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