Inflammation? What does it mean...?

[Nicola-Jane]

Stop The Thyroid Madness talks about 'inflammation'... does that refer to inflammation of cells, i.e. causes of cells not absorbing correctly etc.?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

I am going to duck this question and point you here:

Inflammation (Latin, inflammo, "I ignite, set alight") is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. The classical signs of acute inflammation are pain, heat, redness, swelling, and loss of function. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process. Inflammation is not a synonym for infection, even in cases where inflammation is caused by infection. Although infection is caused by a microorganism, inflammation is one of the responses of the organism to the pathogen. However, inflammation is a stereotyped response, and therefore it is considered as a mechanism of innate immunity, as compared to adaptive immunity, which is specific for each pathogen.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infla...

I could spend ages writing up the tiny amount I know - and not manage a tenth, or even a hundredth of what is there!

Rod

[Duchy82]

In simple biological terms inflammation is where your blood vessels open up to let fluid and your white blood cells out into your tissues (mass of cells with the same function ie thyroid tissue) it causes swelling usually feels hot looks red and is painful it is a mechanism of the body to fight infection or in autoimmune cases its where you white blood cells fight you own tissues as they are seen as a foreign body (like a splinter or parasite).