Inflammation as a precursor for disease?

Occasionally I get to listen to "Talk of the Nation ~ Science Friday." I usually enjoy the discussion, but it is nothing that catches my fancy to write about. Well, there are exceptions to most everything, this being one of those exceptions.

The discussion was about how Western doctors and scientists are seeing a link between inflammation at one point in a persons life and a deeper disease, like alzheimers at another.

TCM has written about this link since its earliest writings.

The saying is something to the effect of "A disease that enters in one season, if not cleared, will change into another disease in another season." Of course that is not a word for word transliteration, but it gives the essential concept for today's discussion.

The usual understanding of this is a cold in the winter giving rise to a febrile disease in the spring. I understand that, and have seen it happen. I have also seen where it did not happen.

One of the key concepts in treating "patterns of disharmony" ["We don't do 'disease'."] in TCM revolves around understanding what "level" the disharmony is located. There are entire "schools of thought" built around the two primary concepts of Cold or Hot. Each one has significant clinical importance.

Yet in each of these there is the concept of "Latent Heat" or "Lingering Pathogens." I see the two terms as essentially the same. If a pathogen is trapped within the body it will 'morph' over time into a form of heat, that heat is latent or hidden. But it is still doing its work until the opportunity presents itself to re-emerge. It is understood that it will not re-emerge as the same pattern as when it "went into hiding."

I use this concept when I am teaching the Immunology course. I have written about this before; but try to appreciate the challenge of discussing/teaching about immunology when TCM does not ever recognize an immune system. This is one way to conceptualize how what becomes cancer can invade and be dormant or hidden until it blossoms into its deadly form. It was there for years, maybe even decades before it found the opening it was waiting for to re-emerge. That is not to say that it went in as "cancer" or even as a 'carcinogenic substance'. I am saying it morphed into cancer.

So back to the radio program. The doctors are seeing that if they can reduce or eliminate the inflammation the patient has a significantly reduced chance of developing a different disease at a later point in their life.

This is one place where TCM would agree with Western Science; though as usual we would treat it differently. Inflammation is heat, both sciences agree on that. However our treatments are significantly different; TCM would determine what level that heat is residing or trapped and then start to clear the heat from that level, then the next most surface level and on until it is cleared from the surface. That does not take very long, and it is very effective. Of course one has to be sure what level the heat is on, but the signs and symptoms are very clear in diagnosing that.

I did think it was interesting how the sciences are starting to see similar things, even though as usual we use different words to say the same things; and I do not even know if anyone other than myself heard this discussion and saw the connections and differences.