ask the pickleball doctor
By Noe Sariban, PT, DPT
www.thepickleballdoctor.com
Inflammation
Is it good or
bad—and
what to do
about it!
I
nflammation is a term used every day in the
healthcare field when discussing acute injuries
and chronic conditions. However, inflammation
is very poorly understood by the general public,
and even by some healthcare professionals. What is
inflammation? What does it mean? Is it a positive or a
negative thing? What should we do to manage acute and
chronic conditions?
Inflammation is defined as a naturally occurring
process in our bodies in response to an insult to our
tissues, injury, or chronic condition leading to symptoms
such as swelling, redness, and warmth to the touch, and
is usually associated with pain from the injury site. It’s
widely believed that inflammation is negative, and that
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it should be controlled as soon as possible following
injury with modalities such as ice, Non-Steroidal Anti-
Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS), or even more invasive
measures such as oral steroids or injections (SAIDS).
However, recent evidence suggests that this may
not always be the best approach to maximizing your
recovery.
It turns out that inflammation is an umbrella term
that encompasses various reactions in our body at four
different levels:
• Clinical: heat, swelling, redness, pain
• Physiological: vasodilation, muscle spasms,
coagulation, angiogenesis, etc.