What if cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and even depression weren’t separate problems at all—but symptoms of the same underlying process?

In this episode of vpod.ai, Mike and Susan dive deep into chronic inflammation, the silent biological fire linked to nearly every major disease we fear. Unlike acute inflammation, which helps us heal, chronic inflammation quietly smolders for years, damaging tissues, disrupting organs, and accelerating disease long before symptoms appear.

The conversation breaks down what inflammation really is, why it turns harmful, and how modern life keeps pouring fuel on the fire.

Inside the episode:

• The critical difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation
• Why chronic inflammation is often symptomless until serious disease appears
• How aging and immune system fatigue contribute to long-term inflammatory damage
• The surprising role of body fat as an active, inflammation-producing organ
• Why sedentary lifestyles amplify inflammation—and how exercise acts as medicine
• How diet deficiencies can trigger neurological inflammation, including a striking pediatric case
• What smoking and heated tobacco products do to inflammatory and fibrotic pathways
• New research on NADH and the body’s natural antioxidant defenses
• How inflammation connects distant body systems, including gums and joints
• Why treating gum disease can reduce rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
• The biological link between inflammation and depression, highlighted through lupus research
• How gut proteins influence systemic inflammation in conditions like Crohn’s disease
• The difference between broad anti-inflammatory drugs and targeted biologic therapies
• Why metformin is emerging as an unexpected anti-inflammatory tool
• Promising future treatments targeting the inflammosome and neuroinflammation

Rather than viewing inflammation as a side effect, this episode reframes it as the engine driving disease. While advanced medications can help when the damage is severe, the most powerful tools remain everyday choices—movement, nutrition, gut health, and avoiding inflammatory triggers.

This conversation offers a hopeful perspective: by addressing inflammation early, we may one day prevent many chronic diseases before they ever begin.

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