Blame it on the inflammation
Today, Explained
This episode of 'Today, Explained' explores the growing cultural obsession with inflammation as a root cause of modern health issues, examining
Key takeaways
- Inflammation is not inherently bad—it plays a vital role in healing, muscle repair, and routine cellular maintenance.
- Chronic low-grade inflammation, which persists without clear triggers, is linked to serious health conditions but remains poorly understood.
Main topics
- The science of acute vs. chronic inflammation
- Inflammation in modern disease and aging
Notable quotes
"Inflammation is your immune system going into attack mode... to try to get rid of some outside invader."
Conclusion
While chronic inflammation is a legitimate concern linked to major diseases, the current cultural fixation on it—driven by
Transcript preview
Speaker 5 (0:00) Sometimes Sally Helm just wants to know what's wrong. Speaker 4 (0:03) Like, why am I so tired? Why does life feel so hard? And I have come to learn that if you address that question not to your sister or your therapist, but instead to TikTok, you can get a blessedly simple answer. Speaker 3 (0:20) Inflammation is the root of all disease. Speaker 1 (0:22) The root cause of almost all chronic illnesses and aging itself. Speaker 6 (0:27) Heart disease, diabetes. Alzheimer's disease, even some forms of cancer. Acne, Speaker 3 (0:32) eczema, hair loss, hormonal issues, PMS, bloating, irregular bowel movements. Speaker 4 (0:37) Are you worried? Because don't worry, there are also tips. First is Speaker 6 (0:43) supplements. Curcumin is extremely anti-inflammatory. Cinnamon's very anti-inflammatory. Tip number two, consider taking a break from food. Number three, more fish. Speaker 4 (0:54) Okay, and now I am confused. Because it sounds like I'm supposed to eat a lot of fish sprinkled with curcumin, which I don't actually know what that is. The Speaker 6 (1:02) main active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. Okay, great. Which on its own is not easily absorbed by your body. Uh Speaker 4 (1:09) -oh. Speaker 6 (1:10) Enter black pepper, specifically pepperine. Speaker 4 (1:13) Okay, check. But then I'm also supposed to not eat food? The ancient practice of intermittent fasting can also help lower inflammation in the body. And I'm probably also supposed to buy something? Together, they really create this potent extract Speaker 3 (1:27) in this bottle. Speaker 4 (1:29) At this point, I'm like, as much as I wanted a nice, simple explanation, this just can't be real. Like, inflammation cannot be the root of all diseases. Speaker 4 (1:41) But then I came across a recent big piece by my colleague at Fox, health reporter Dylan Scott. And the science in this piece, it was really surprising to me. Because it sounds like there is something to the idea that chronic inflammation may be behind many of the diseases of modern life. But it also sounds like we've demonized inflammation without pausing to ask what it's good for. Speaker 6 (2:12) Today Explained is ushering in the long weekend with a feature from our friends at Unexplainable. So get ready to get inflamed. Speaker 2 (2:28) Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow, none of them talk to each other. That's where Odoo comes in. An all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, all in one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs, and best of all, no spreadsheets. Stop managing software and start managing your business with one unified system. Try for free today at odoo.com slash Vox. That's O-D-O-O dot com slash Vox. Dylan Speaker 4 (3:19) Scott, hello. Hi, Sally. All right, Dylan. I have seen many, many different TikToks about inflammation and how it's perhaps causing like every single health problem in our lives. And I am curious, like before you started looking into this, did you see those? Is that what sent you on this journey? Speaker 1 (3:38) Absolutely. Like, I love something that's sort of at the intersection of there is like a genuine scientific question underlying all of this. Like, this is a serious topic that a lot of, you know, well-credentialed researchers are spending their time looking into. But at the same time, it's sort of infiltrated the wellness influencer subculture that defines so much of how we talk about health these days. And it has become a catch-all culprit for a lot of different health conditions. And you've also got people out there talking about, you know, diets or supplements or some kind of other interventions. that you can take to try to reduce your quote-unquote inflammation. Do Speaker 4 (4:21) you have any favorites or least favorites? Speaker 1 (4:24) CMOS has become a fixation for some people on TikTok. Speaker 4 (4:29) It sounds so specific that I'm like, okay, let's do it. Maybe it works. Speaker 1 (4:34) Right. Well, and people, they talk about it with such confidence. That is the weird allure of a lot of this wellness content on social media is because, yeah, it's like it's... quick. It's, you know, whatever, a 90 second video. It's digestible. And they're like, here, here is the elixir, the solution that will help to reduce your chronic inflammation. I think any of us would be like, well, that those that sounds appealing. I'd like to try that out. But Speaker 4 (5:01) as you've already said, Dylan, like this is not just TikTok nonsense. Right. Like the thing about inflammation is that there is this real body of evidence. suggesting that there's something important to think about here. Yeah. So let's get into it. I do feel like I need to ask a kind of basic question before we go much further here, which is, Dylan, what is inflammation? Speaker 1 (5:24) In essence... Inflammation is your immune system going into attack mode and either sending like immunity cells or other kinds of chemicals that your body can release to try to get rid of some outside invader that your body perceives as having infiltrated it and wants to get rid of to keep you healthy. And so... Obviously, if that outside invader is a cold virus or the influenza virus or some bacteria or something like that, like that's what we call acute inflammation. And that's, you know, that's something that we've known about for ages, even like. ancient doctors knew that like the body goes into some kind of response when you get sick. Speaker 4 (6:09) And it's like, okay, great. Yes. Get it gone. I don't want that. I Speaker 1 (6:12) mean, yeah, for this kind of acute inflammation that we're talking about in response to a virus or a bacteria or a wound, you know, back in the ancient times that you might've gotten on the battlefield or something, you know, the red skin or puffy skin that can surround a wound and like. It can be painful, it can feel hot, but at the same time, that is like your body responding to a problem and trying to fix it. And so, I mean, my sense is that like the word developed because like it has these literal associations with heat. But I do think it... it's created this problem unintentionally where it just sounds like something negative. Inflammation sounds like something that you want to get rid