Sally Helm

And that is chronic inflammation.

And OK, honestly, Dylan, I can see why it is a concept that people are gravitating towards, because it's just like something in the world is leaving us in this constant state of being a little bit agitated and like a little bit overheated.

And that just kind of feels true to me.

But I want to dig in on whether it is true.

Like what what is going on here?

So tell me first, like, what causes chronic inflammation?

I mean, and that's interesting, just to pause you quickly, Dylan, because that is kind of another example of, like, it sounds bad, but maybe it's good.

Like, in that explanation of chronic inflammation, it's like, well...

It's a trade-off for a longer life.

Okay, I am hearing you that aging is a part of what's going on here.

But can you go back to what you were saying at the beginning about the role that modernity might be playing here?

Wow.

Okay.

So this is getting complicated, Dylan, because I think what you're saying to me is that we already talked about those two types of kind of systemic inflammation.

One helps us stay at homeostasis.

It like helps us kind of just respond to the stuff that's coming at us all the time and heal and move on.

And one is like chronic inflammation, this like slightly elevated, but it doesn't need to be type of inflammation.

And that one can cause disease, can cause all kinds of trouble.

And it sounds like what you're saying to me is that like maybe in the evolutionary past, it would have been one and now it's the other.

Like in the evolutionary past, this type of inflammation would have been necessary.