Inflammation Isn’t the Enemy
Why Healing Requires Inflammation — and Why Chronic Pain Happens When It Doesn’t Resolve
Inflammation has a bad reputation. For many people, it’s a word that immediately brings to mind pain, swelling, stiffness, and frustration. If you’ve been dealing with chronic pain, you’ve probably been told to “get the inflammation down” more times than you can count.
But inflammation itself is not the problem.
In fact, you cannot heal without inflammation.
At Impact Laser Mobility & Recovery, we often explain inflammation as part of a larger healing conversation. The real issue in chronic pain is not that inflammation exists — it’s that inflammation never properly resolves.
Understanding this distinction can completely change how you approach recovery.
What Inflammation Is Supposed to Do
Inflammation is one of the body’s most important protective and healing responses. When tissue is injured, inflammation increases blood flow, delivers immune cells, and signals the body to begin repair. This process helps clear damaged tissue and sets the stage for rebuilding.
In a healthy healing response, inflammation rises, does its job, and then gradually turns off as repair is completed. Pain decreases, function returns, and the tissue moves forward.
This is acute inflammation, and it is necessary.
When Inflammation Becomes a Problem
Chronic pain develops when inflammation gets stuck.
Instead of rising and resolving, the body remains in a low-grade inflammatory state. Blood flow may remain impaired. Repair signals stay incomplete. The nervous system becomes sensitized. Tissue never fully finishes healing.
This ongoing inflammatory environment drains cellular energy and keeps the body in a constant “repair attempt” mode — without ever crossing the finish line.
The result is pain that lingers long after the original injury should have healed.
The Relationship Between Inflammation and Cellular Energy
Inflammation and cellular energy are deeply connected.
Resolving inflammation is an energy-demanding process. If cellular energy production is low — as we discussed in Week 2 — the body may not have the resources required to shut inflammation down properly.
This creates a cycle:
Inflammation stays active
Cellular energy is drained
Repair slows
Pain signals continue
In many chronic conditions, the body is not inflamed because it is broken — it is inflamed because it is under-resourced.
Why “Just Reducing Inflammation” Often Backfires
Many people attempt to manage chronic pain by aggressively suppressing inflammation — through medications, injections, or repeated icing — without supporting the underlying healing process.
While these approaches can reduce symptoms temporarily, they don’t always help the body complete repair. In some cases, they can even delay healing by interrupting necessary inflammatory signaling.
The goal is not to eliminate inflammation completely.
The goal is to guide it to resolution.
Nutrition’s Role in Inflammation Resolution
One of the most powerful — and often overlooked — ways to support inflammation resolution is through nutrition.
Plant-forward, nutrient-dense eating patterns provide compounds that help regulate inflammatory signaling rather than simply suppress it. Antioxidants help manage oxidative stress created during tissue repair. Minerals such as magnesium and potassium support cellular function and nervous system balance. Omega-3 fatty acids support anti-inflammatory signaling pathways that help the body transition out of the inflammatory phase of healing.
Hydration also plays a role. Adequate fluid intake supports circulation, lymphatic flow, and waste removal — all essential for resolving inflammation effectively.
Nutrition does not “turn inflammation off.”
It helps the body finish what it started.
Supporting the Body While Inflammation Resolves
When inflammation is supported — not fought — healing becomes more efficient.
Improving circulation helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to the tissue. Supporting cellular energy allows repair processes to continue. Calming the nervous system reduces pain amplification. Together, these factors help inflammation move from an active state into resolution.
This is why recovery often requires a combination of strategies rather than a single intervention.
A Reframe for Chronic Pain
If you’ve been dealing with pain for months or years, it does not mean your body is “too inflamed” or broken beyond repair.
More often, it means your body has been trying to heal — but hasn’t had the support it needs to complete the process.
Inflammation that lingers is a signal, not a failure.
Healing From the Inside Out
Healing from the inside out means respecting the body’s design. It means understanding that inflammation, energy production, circulation, and repair are all part of the same system.
When those systems are supported together, inflammation no longer needs to shout for attention — and pain often begins to quiet as healing finally moves forward.
In the next part of this series, we’ll explore how modern recovery therapies help guide circulation, signaling, and tissue repair when the body feels stuck.