Inflammation in your body is a response to an illness, injury, or a foreign body invasion like germs and chemicals. While it is a normal and important process that allows your body to heal, recurrent or frequent inflammation is not good. According to experts, inflammation can harm you if it occurs in healthy tissues or goes on for too long, leading to deadly diseases like cancer, heart issues, liver damage, and many others.

Inflammation affects many parts of your body that you cannot see. Inflammatory responses that occur behind the scenes can help you heal, but other times, they can harm your health. And so, when you have inflammation, you would notice discoloured or flushed skin, pain and tenderness, swelling, skin that feels hot to the touch, and an inability to use that part of your body as you normally would.

According to experts, inflammatory markers are blood tests used by doctors to detect inflammation in the body, which includes infections, auto-immune conditions, and cancers. The most commonly used inflammatory markers are:

Also known as the sed rate, the ESR is a blood test that detects the development of an inflammatory disorder.

Doctors say it is found through a regular blood test, through which the inflammatory conditions make the cells clump together, making them denser and settle faster than individual cells. Given that the ESR test measures how far red blood cells fall in the tube within an hour, expressed in millimetres per hour, a higher value indicates a more significant immune system response to inflammation.

A typical result considered normal is 20 mm/hr or lower, while a reading of over 100 mm/hr is considered to be significantly elevated.

A C-reactive protein (CRP) test finds out the elevated levels of protein concentration in your blood. Once in the bloodstream, CRP attaches to damaged tissue or microbes and marks them so that they can be removed by the immune system.

The test is designed to measure CRP levels below 10 mg/L, which is not possible with a regular CRP test. This makes it a useful tool for detecting systemic, low-grade inflammation.

Interleukin-6 or IL-6, has both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory properties which is important for your immune system to function correctly. IL-6 prompts bone breakdown and alleviates inflammation induced by exercise. Apart from that, it also plays a significant role in the progression from acute to chronic inflammation and triggers the release of CRP from liver cells, perpetuating the inflammatory cycle.

Cytokines are minute proteins that facilitate communication between immune cells and are crucial in coordinating an immune response to injury and infection.

Fibrinogen is a blood protein that becomes activated by the enzyme thrombin to help in blood clot formation. It is also crucial for the creation of new blood vessels and the healing of damaged tissue. Very similar to CRP, fibrinogen surges in response to inflammation and has the capability to activate various immune cells.

Fibrinogen is recommended to diagnose or rule out bleeding or blood clotting disorders. In certain cases, fibrinogen testing may also be conducted to gather more information about your risk of any heart-related inflammation, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

Ferritin protein stores iron and makes sure that your body has enough iron to utilise for your overall health and well-being. A ferritin test is usually requested to determine if you are anemic or have low iron levels.

Ferritin levels also increase when inflammation spikes due to pathogens like viruses and bacteria. Ferritin can also leak out into the bloodstream when cells are injured, causing levels to increase.

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