In the bright sunshine or the beam course of the Jamaica-negotiations has it that the Prime Minister of Hesse Volker Bouffier (CDU) appeared at the end of October on the balcony of the German parliamentary society with a pair of sunglasses. Rather, he wanted to protect his left eye. It was ignited. For several weeks now Bouffier suffered from an infection of the nerves in his left face half. The disease had distorted his facial Expressions and the eye.

A cut Finger, a breath, full of cold viruses, a naughty food: every Day, millions of threatening microbes enter our body. Usually our immune system keeps them in check, without that, we will register it. In worse cases, it reacts in a more violent, and with inflammation: The strange cell surface of microbes attracts white blood cells to combat the invaders and offered to distribute materials, the more immune activating cells. It comes to the four typical inflammation symptoms: The affected part of the body becomes hot, reddens, swells and hurts. The threat has been neutralized, the immune system, its activity back down again. Normally.

The typical symptoms are absent

Not always because the inflammation program shuts down completely. Often it smolders as a silent inflammation in the body, and the four typical symptoms appear – whether in the gums or in the lymph nodes, in the intestine or in the brain, in a joint or on the skin.

This silent Inflammation is called the reaction proceeds usually without the Affected to notice it. The more dramatic effects of subliminal duration of a fire are: they range from heart attack, Diabetes, and joint problems, through to neurological disorders and even cancer.

“Silent inflammation is suddenly not there. It develops very slowly and is often only noticed when there is already a result diseases occur. In this stage of silent inflammation are usually chronic and progressive,“ says Karsten Krüger, Professor for Sport and health at the University of Hannover.

The silence of the enemy in my body

Scorpio Verlag

In his book “The silent enemy in my body,” describes Krüger, what happens in the case of a silent inflammation. The defense cells in the immune system, among other things, reactive oxygen radicals that not only combat invading microbes, but also healthy tissue can damage. In the long term, the inner walls of the blood change, for example, vessels. Those affected are more susceptible to a heart attack or a stroke.

And the longer the inflammatory attacks persist, the greater the risk of permanent damage in the cell nuclei, which can lead to cancer. About one in five, malignant Tumor is now linked with chronic inflammation.

The neuroscientist Julian Hellmann-Regen, and Vera Clemens from Berlin’s Charité hospital have found that underlying inflammation can also trigger depression. So far, high levels of Inflammation were seen in the blood, only as an epiphenomenon of treatment-resistant depression. Hellmann-rain explains what happens in the thinking organ: “The inflammation releases in the brain messenger substances which trigger an immunological chain reaction. This is not interrupted, the inflammation processes in various regions of the brain like a ping-pong System to each other.“ This self-perpetuating inflammatory process in the brain break of some depression patients have started the two Berlin Doctors Recently, a study with the drug minocycline. Usually the preparation is used to treat acne, a skin inflammation. With the first results of the clinical trial the Doctors expect in the coming year.

Long-Term Risk Of Dementia

Regardless of the outcome of the drug trial Hellmann recommends-rain: “family doctors and psychiatrists should not check in patients with depression, the inflammation values in the blood, especially when conventional antidepressants to strike.” Because it is not treated inflammation in the brain could be damaging in the long run, the protection mechanisms of the nerve cells and lead to degenerative diseases such as dementia.

That inflammation can raise at various Points in the body the same medicine, Falk Hiepe no Surprise. He is one of the clinicians that work together in the a year ago launched the Leibniz science campus Chronic inflammation in Berlin with scientists from the Leibniz-Institute, German rheumatism research center Berlin and the Charité. In the science campus researchers, Doctors and students meet regularly to discuss the various aspects of inflammatory processes. The weekly B – and T-Cell-Clubs (based on the B-cells and T-cells of the immune system) are always well attended.

Hiepe is convinced of the concept: “We want to resolve the subject-specific Thinking and interdisciplinary approach. This scientific discussion club will bring the research and treatment of chronic inflammation faster than the previous division according to disciplines.“ In order to help affected patients more quickly, have caused the Berlin another offer to life: the interdisciplinary network of experts. Here Doctors advise various disciplines together with patients suffering from chronic inflammation.

Search for targeted therapies

“The deeper we see into the System, the more complex the relationships are,” marvels Hiepe. Inflammation in the joints, for example, could have different causes and are treated differently. Inflammation in quite different places in the body, in turn, could have a lot in common. In addition to suitable therapeutic agents Hiepe and his colleagues are also looking for so-called biomarkers, which show chronic inflammation is reliable, even if these occur only locally and limited to certain Places in the body.

Inflammations are not treated, they can migrate through the body and at different Points emerge. For example, in the case of psoriatic Arthritis. It usually begins with inflammation of the skin, of the psoriasis or Psoriasis. “25 to 30 percent of Psoriasis patients get as a side effect of Arthritis in the joints,” says Rolf Blaga from the Psoriasis Forum Berlin. “Sometimes the joints and then the skin are affected.” It is important, as Blaga, the Affected quickly went to the doctor, so that the primary inflammation is treated quickly.

Many clues indicate that the body’s own fat depots play an important role in the derailment of the immune budget. Fat cells release various cytokines of the inflammatory reactions in the blood to rise. The messengers program, among other things, the phagocytic cells (macrophages) of the immune system. Send henceforth, continually danger signals into the blood and thus fuel the immune system. People with oversized cushions of fat are, therefore, particularly well-suited for underlying inflammation. In Germany, this affects more than half of the women and men. This also explains why the Obesity is also the number of people with type 2 Diabetes increases.

The Ulm researchers have recently made in animal experiments, a protein molecule to locate the missing programmed macrophages in the blood by a new, intact phagocytes replaced: the neuropeptide FF. This Protein occurs in thin animals, and those who were put on a diet, present in high concentration. Thicker animals with a high percentage of body fat, by contrast, show a significantly lower Level of neuropeptide FF. The researchers administered the obese animals, the protein substance, formed this new intact phagocytic cells in the blood, and inflammation;.

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Eat less and less, the body has two essential components are fat, therefore, to chronic inflammation, counteract. Another is the choice of anti-inflammatory food. The Danish nutrition expert, Martin Kreutzer and his country wife, the Larsen, food journalist Anne, in her book, “The Anti-inflammation diet” foods that support the immune system of the body positive. An important role of Omega-3 fatty acids. They regulate the immune system on a healthy Level. Oily fish (mackerel, salmon), Flaxseed oil, and certain nuts contain particularly much.

Antioxidant phytochemicals in vegetables and fruits protect body cells from the effects of inflammation by trapping free oxygen radicals in the body. Probiotic foods such as yogurt and fermented vegetables (Sauerkraut) support, in turn, the bacteria community in the intestine and relieve the immune system. And, not least, Vitamin D influences the immune system positively. The body can make Vitamin D even yourself, but only if the skin receives enough sun light. In the Winter vitamin can capsules a possible deficit.

The immunological against player-to-Omega-3-fatty acids are Omega-6 fatty acids, which are, for example, in safflower and sunflower oil. You heat up the immune system. Crucial for the well-being of the correct ratio of the two lipid components. Optimal ratio of Omega-6/Omega-3 of 5:1 applies. Also TRANS fats that are stuck in deep-fried foods, proinflammatorisch, so inflammatory, and should, if possible, are seldom on the menu.