The New York Times, The Atlantic, HHS leader RFK Jr: open social media, listen to a podcast, or walk down the supplement aisle, and you’ll hear the same word repeated over and over:
Inflammation. Yes, it’s real, yes, it’s oversimplified, and yes, it’s necessary to life.
It’s blamed for everything from brain fog and fatigue to weight gain, anxiety, autoimmune disease, and aging itself. At the same time, many physicians have become increasingly frustrated with how casually the word is used. They point out—correctly—that inflammation has become a catch-all meme for complex problems that deserve a far more medically intelligent explanation than most people can comprehend.
As I listened to the conversations unfolding around the recent poignant articles, I realized something important. Both sides are trying to answer a different question. And that’s why they often end up talking past one another. And mostly accusing one side of being right and the other being wrong. Ugh.
The Wellness Question
The wellness community tends to ask: “What is moving me away from health?”
It’s a beautiful question really. It invites us to consider our sleep, our stress, our food, our relationships, our movement, our daily rhythms, and the countless small decisions that shape our physiology long before disease appears. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, one word became the culprit to almost every problem.
Inflammation.
Can’t lose weight? Inflammation. Joint pain? Inflammation. Brain fog? Inflammation. Fatigue? Inflammation. While chronic inflammation can certainly contribute to many diseases, reducing every symptom to one explanation oversimplifies one of the most sophisticated systems in the human body. And I’m here to tell you – turmeric cannot solve the entire inflammatory problem.
The Medical Question
Modern medicine begins somewhere else. Its question is: “What disease process is occurring?”
That distinction matters. Medicine has become extraordinarily skilled at identifying pathology. Heart attacks, Autoimmune diseases, Cancer, Infections, Inflammatory bowel disease. Treatments for these are remarkable achievements that have saved millions of lives and reduced enormous amounts of suffering.
But patients often arrive in the clinic with a different basis to begin. “I don’t feel well.” That space between vibrant health and diagnosable disease is where many people live. It’s also the shared space where clinicians and patients alike begin searching for answers. Both hold the similar intention – to alleviate feeling unwell – that is the unifying goal.
Here’s Where the Conversation Splits
Medicine often asks for measurable evidence. Wellness often recognizes patterns before those patterns become disease. Neither approach is inherently wrong. Each simply begins from a different premise. The problem begins when either side forgets the limits of its own perspective. Medicine can sometimes imply that if we can’t measure a problem yet, it doesn’t exist. Wellness can sometimes imply that because something feels true, it must already be scientifically established. Humility belongs on both sides.
What Inflammation Actually Is
Here’s the part I wish everyone understood. Inflammation is not a disease. It is not a diagnosis. It is not your body’s mistake. Inflammation is one of your oldest survival mechanisms. When you cut your finger…Inflammation. When you recover from a virus…Inflammation. When you build muscle after exercise…Inflammation. When your body repairs damaged tissue…Inflammation. Without inflammation, wounds wouldn’t heal, infections wouldn’t clear, and tissues couldn’t repair themselves. Inflammation is not evidence that your body has failed. More often than not, it’s evidence that your body is trying to protect you.
The Better Question
For decades we thought of inflammation almost like a light switch. On or off. Today, immunology paints a much more elegant picture. Scientists now recognize that healthy inflammation isn’t simply something that stops on its own. The body has active biochemical programs whose job is to resolve inflammation—signaling that the threat has passed, clearing damaged cells, repairing tissue, and returning the immune system to balance. When these resolution pathways fail, inflammation can persist and contribute to chronic disease. That’s an extraordinary shift in understanding. The goal isn’t simply less inflammation. The goal is appropriate inflammation followed by appropriate resolution. That’s what healthy physiology looks like.
Where Ayurveda Offers Something Different
As an Ayurvedic physician, I’m often asked whether Ayurveda “treats inflammation.” I don’t think that’s the most interesting question. Ayurveda begins much earlier. It asks: What conditions allow the body to regulate itself well?
My response to their questions about inflammation starts like this: “How is your sleep? What has changed in your digestion? Have you had a significant disruption to your daily rhythm? Any recent stress events? Let’s check your nutrition. Are you doing movement regularly? Any hard relationship stuff? What has this season brought up for you?
None of these are anti-inflammatory in the simplistic sense we’ve come to use that word. They are activities that support and define regulation. Interestingly, modern immunology is beginning to use very similar language. Researchers speak less about boosting the immune system and more about immune regulation, immune tolerance, resilience, and homeostasis. Different language, different models, but perhaps not entirely different aspirations.
Moving Beyond Being Right
I don’t believe this conversation should be about choosing sides. Modern medicine has extraordinary tools for diagnosing and treating disease once pathology develops. They have some of the most potent anti-inflammatory drugs ever developed. Ayurveda offers a framework for cultivating the conditions that help the body remain adaptable and support recovery before disease becomes established and inflammation persists. Those are not competing missions. They’re complementary questions. One asks: “What disease is present?” The other asks: “What patterns are moving this person toward or away from homeostasis?” Both questions matter.
A Final Thought
Perhaps we’ve spent too much time asking how to fight inflammation. Maybe the better question is this: How do we create the conditions for a well-regulated human being? Because inflammation isn’t the villain. It isn’t the hero, either. It’s a conversation your immune system is constantly having with the world around you. Health isn’t found by silencing that conversation. It’s found by helping the body know when to respond, when to repair, and just as importantly, when to return to balance.
Curious to begin this conversation with your own body? Start with a free consultation, and let’s explore the signals your body is sending about inflammation, health, and homeostasis.
