Ask A Cardiac Surgeon: Your Body’s Check Engine Light-Chronic “Low Grade” Inflammation Explained

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:01]Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Michael Richmond, double board certified cardiothoracic surgeon.

[00:00:06]So, I've been struggling for the past couple weeks about how to describe chronic low-grade inflammation in terms that a non-physician would understand.

[00:00:15]But after asking some physician friends, I realized that many of them don't even know what it means and how to describe it, believe it or not.

[00:00:23]So, today I'm going to go through today's topic, which is what is chronic low-grade inflammation, and hopefully be able to explain it in a way that everybody will understand.

[00:00:33]So, what is it? Well, chronic low-grade inflammation is a slow, ongoing, background irritation, if you will, inside the body. And here's a simple way to think about it.

[00:00:48]What is inflammation normally? In other words, what do we define as inflammation? So, inflammation is your body's defense system.

[00:00:57]For example, if you cut your finger, it may bleed, it gets red, warm, swollen, and painful. That's called acute inflammation, and it means the body is doing its job. It's bringing in blood with oxygen, uh fighting germs, and helping you heal.

[00:01:12]So, this is short-term and helpful. But what makes something chronic and low-grade? Well, with chronic low-grade inflammation, there's no obvious injury, uh there's no major pain or swelling.

[00:01:26]It can last for months or years, and it runs quietly in the background, kind of like a small fire, if you will, that never fully goes out or extinguishes itself. Instead of helping, it slowly irritates tissues over time.

[00:01:42]So, now you're asking, why does this happen? Well, it's triggered by things like excess body fat, especially visceral fat, like abdominal fat. So, people who look apple-shaped, not pear-shaped. People who eat a poor diet with highly processed foods and excess sugar, uh smoking, chronic stress, poor sleep, physical inactivity, uh aging, and chronic medical conditions, and fat tissue in particular can release chemical signals that keep the immune system slightly activated all the time.

[00:02:17]So, why does this matter? Because over time this constant low-level irritation can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, fatty liver disease, uh dementia, some cancers, arthritis, and autoimmune conditions. And it doesn't cause symptoms early on, which is why it's sometimes called silent inflammation. But, here's the good news.

[00:02:39]Unlike acute inflammation, chronic low-gl- low-grade inflammation is modifiable, and things that modify it include regular exercise, weight loss if you're overweight, the Mediterranean way of eating, or the Mediterranean diet, whatever you want to call it, smoking cessation, good sleep, stress reduction.

[00:03:00]But, in simplistic terms, chronic low-grade inflammation is when your body's defense system stays slightly turned on all the time. Not enough to make you feel sick right away, but enough to slowly damage the tissues over years. So, with that, I hope you learned something today. Thank you so much for listening, and have a great evening.