Can acute inflammation protect you from chronic pain?

Inflammation is the body’s defense against pathogens like bacteria and viruses. Inflammation is also involved when the body is exposed to an injury. The acute inflammation helps to clear out damaged tissue and get it ready for repair (regeneration of new tissue).

The following research investigated what happens when tissue gets injured, and what happens if anti inflammatory drugs are taken at the acute stage to reduce pain (Parisien M, et.al., 2022).

The researchers found that neutrophil-driven up-regulation of inflammatory responses was protective against the transition to chronic pain.

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cells released as a part of an inflammatory response, immune response.

This research was done in England. Patients reporting acute back pain in the UK Biobank identified elevated risk of pain persistence for patients taking NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). This means that despite analgesic efficacy at early time points, the management of acute inflammation may be counterproductive for long-term outcomes of low back pain.

A natural substance like curcumin does not reduce inflammation as strongly as an anti-inflammatory drug and is a better choice to avoid chronic pain after an injury.

Reference

Marc Parisien, Lucas V Lima, Concetta Dagostino, Nehme El-Hachem, Gillian L Drury, Audrey V Grant, Jonathan Huising, Vivek Verma, Carolina B Meloto, Jaqueline R Silva, Gabrielle G S Dutra, Teodora Markova, Hong Dang, Philippe A Tessier, Gary D Slade, Andrea G Nackley, Nader Ghasemlou, Jeffrey S Mogil, Massimo Allegri, Luda Diatchenko, Acute inflammatory response via neutrophil activation protects against the development of chronic pain, Sci Transl Med. 2022 May 11;14(644):eabj9954

 

Do you feel stiff or experience aches and pain?

If you do, you have increased free radical damage and low-grade inflammation which is getting more and more common as we get older.