The Role of Ivermectin and Vitamin D in Reducing General Chronic Inflammation

Executive Summary

• One part of the impact of Ivermectin and Vitamin D on improving the immune system is in reducing chronic inflammation.
• Chronic inflammation is central to many diseases, including cancer.

Introduction

Understanding the role chronic inflammation plays in cancer and how Ivermectin fights this issue is critical to understanding one of the powerful effects of Ivermectin.

What is Inflammation?

Inflammation is part of the immune response. So, to be chronically inflamed is when the immune system is over-responding and, therefore, can be categorized the same way as an auto-immune disease. The way inflammation is part of the immunity and the immune response is explained in the following quotation.

Inflammation is your body’s way of defending itself against bacteria, viruses, or damaged cells, and it occurs naturally as part of the natural healing process. The inflammation, which can cause you a lot of pain and discomfort, is removing the harmful pathogens from your body. A rapid inflammation, in response to a broken bone, or a viral infection, can cause swelling for a few days and dissipate quickly. This inflammation is helping your body heal itself, and it’s not a bad thing. However, if you suffer from a chronic and ongoing inflammation, it’s a sign that your body isn’t healing itself, and you’ll struggle with chronic pain and stress. – Sound Sleep Medical

Getting poor sleep increases inflammation. Stress increases inflammation.

Why is this?

These two things are not a virus or other pathogens. The answer is that the immune system perceives poor sleep and stress as an attack on the body, and the immune system is alert through these two examples. Those with poor sleep or stress are at high risk for chronic inflammation. Furthermore, these things are all interactive. So, a person with chronic inflammation will have a problem sleeping.

Moreover, it does not take chronic sleep deprivation to cause inflammation, and one night will cause inflammation to rise, as is explained in the following quotation.

A new article in the September 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, by the UCLA Cousins Center research team, reports that losing sleep for even part of one night can trigger the key cellular pathway that produces tissue-damaging inflammation. The findings suggest a good night’s sleep can ease the risk of both heart disease and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. – Science Daily

The Link Between Chronic Inflammation and Multiple Diseases

Chronic inflammation has been connected to the following diseases.

Alzheimer’s disease
Asthma
Cancer
Heart disease
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)
Type 2 diabetes – Cleveland Clinic

However, chronic inflammation leads to the degradation of the immune system, and anything that degrades the function of the immune system makes the person subject to all diseases and is further connected to auto-immune disease. Auto-immune disease is necessarily tied to chronic inflammation.

I cover the relationship between inflammation and cancer in the article The Relationship Between Inflammation and Cancer.

The Logic of Depression as and Adaptive Response

There is far more coverage of inflammation and depression than inflammation’s impact on cancer. 

Inflammation and Depression

The article Immunity, Inflammation, and Cancer covers more of this topic. To understand the following quotation, tumorigenesis is precisely what it sounds like the development and growth of tumors.

A role for inflammation in tumorigenesis is now generally accepted, and it has become evident that an inflammatory microenvironment is an essential component of all tumors, including some in which a direct causal relationship with inflammation is not yet proven (Mantovani et al., 2008).

Many environmental causes of cancer and risk factors are associated with some form of chronic inflammation.

Up to 20% of cancers are linked to chronic infections, 30% can be attributed to tobacco smoking and inhaled pollutants (such as silica and asbestos), and 35% can be attributed to dietary factors (20% of cancer burden is linked to obesity) (Aggarwal et al., 2009).

Infections, tobacco smoking, and inhaling pollutants all lead to increased inflammation. This is explained in the following quotation.