Inflammation: The Modern Equivalent of Learning to Control FIRE

• Inflammation is so confusing --- its like a BABY crying --- that baby maybe crying for the usual reasons:
  • ​hungry
  • tired
  • needs a diaper change, BUT
  • it could be something else

 

• To me, inflammation is like that baby crying ---- maybe there are different types of cries and different types of inflammation --- but it's this kind of UNIVERSAL SIGNAL that something is needing to be addressed.

 

• In some ways, that CRYING BABY is more IMMEDIATE and EASIER to UNDERSTAND.

 

• INFLAMMATION  can not only build up over a period of years in a SINGLE LIFETIME --- it can build up over GENERATIONS.

 

• One of the things that has made it HARD to UNDERSTAND is that we have IDEAS that there is a STRICT SEPARATION  between our SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS, PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS  and our BIOLOGY
  • ​So we've SEPARATED THINGS OUT to UNDERSTAND them.
  • We haven't really understood the MAGNITUDE of INFLAMMATION because to do that we would have to INTEGRATE an ENORMOUS AMOUNT of KNOWLEDGE from areas and expertise we consider DISTINCT and SEPARATE.

 

• So when we talk about PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS that involve the BRAIN, but other SYSTEMS of the BODY as well, including the IMMUNE SYSTEM --- there are a lot of things that can damage the BRAIN's IMMUNE SYSTEM:
  • ​Maternal Immune Activation
  • Trauma
  • Intergenerational Trauma
  • Infections
  • Toxins
  • Not getting enough oxygen
  • COVID
  • Genes that go to the Immune System and Epigenetics
  • etc.

 

• Human beings aren't necessarily just contending with 1 of those things -- but multiple factors that are playing out in INDIVIDUAL and IDIOSYNCRATIC ways.

 

• We've started the PROCESS of UNDERSTANDING the role of DEVELOPMENTAL INFLAMMATION in many people with  PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS and the role of EPIGENETICS.

 

• So this is MORE COMPLICATED than we're treating it in our HEALTHCARE PROFESSION and in our PUBLIC POLICY.

​
"First Do NO Harm" --- is easy to say --- but it has proven hard to put into practice when multiple systems of the body  are DYSREGULATED --- we're kinda just figuring that out ---- and we're at the beginning stages of IDENTIFYING BIOMARKERS. 

The Society is looking to the MEDICAL PROFESSION and the HEALTHCARE PROFESSION to help NAVIGATE what can be a challenging ETHICAL & MORAL LANDSCAPE.

You wouldn't be the first person or first group of people to feel compelled to take a step back and say:   Maybe our current judgments aren't completely accurate or fair.

Touched with Fire --- Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1996) by Kay Redfield Jamison

Hair Analysis, Psychological Analysis, the Criminal Law & the Ethical & Moral Imperative to Pull Back