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• A red, swollen, hot, and painful joint is not the only medical condition of inflammation I saw those Watertown summers. There were abscesses, appendicitis, tonsillitis, meningitis and sinusitis, all indicating benefits of the inflammatory response, where invading infections were fought off by the body's white-cell warriors.
• Also beneficial, we have recently

learned that muscle growth comes as a result of a response to localized acute inflammation that follows exercise. Other new studies show that low-intensity training, like walking, can reduce destructive chronic inflammation. All-in-all, our bodies are protected and even sculpted by the yin and yang of balanced and healthy inflammation.
• But seeing that young girl with arthritis, I realized there can be harm resulting from inflammation run amok. That summer in Watertown I also saw patients with asthma, poison ivy, psoriasis, Lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis; illnesses the result of too much inflammation.
• Add to this, now we've learned certain cancers grow because of inflammation. And now we have medicine that can turn off small and harmful targets of inflammation: cooling crippling arthritis, soothing devastating rashes, and even shrinking growing cancers.
• Rubor, tumor, calor, dolor... it can be a bad and a good thing!
•
• Dr. Rick Holm wrote this Prairie Doc Perspective for "On Call®," a weekly program where medical professionals discuss health concerns for the general public.  "On Call®" is produced by the Healing Words Foundation in association with the South Dakota State University Journalism Department. "On Call®" airs Thursdays on South Dakota Public Broadcasting-Television at 7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain. Visit us at OnCallTelevision.com.