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How Does Inflammation Impact Your Brain?

5 min read  |  May 27, 2025  | 

Flip through your TV channels or scroll through your social media feed, and you’re bound to come across an advertisement for a nutrition supplement or food product that claims to save you from inflammation. 

But medical experts warn that there is no single “cure” for inflammation, no magic bullet to wipe away the inflammation that may be building in your brain. Understanding that is critical for people, especially older adults, because persistent, chronic inflammation can contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and others. 

Xiaoyan Sun, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of clinical neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has studied the role of biomarkers in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and inflammation in brain diseases for years. She observes its effects in the patients she treats at the University of Miami Health System’s Memory Disorders Clinic and studies the markers it leaves in the brain through her work as executive director of the UM Brain Endowment Bank.

“Acute inflammation is good,” she says. “You want people to have this response. You want your immune system to fight with foreign pathogens. But if you have persistent inflammation, there’s something else happening.”  

What is inflammation?

Inflammation in the brain represents a natural, healthy immune response to foreign pathogens. The inflammation indicates that the body’s defense mechanisms are working by attacking the foreign substances. 

But when that inflammation persists after the pathogens have been eliminated, or if the inflammation is present even when the brain is operating without infection, that can lead to a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders. 

What causes excessive inflammation?

Researchers are still trying to determine the root causes of chronic inflammation. They don’t fully understand the genetics behind it or the biological processes that lead to it. There’s not even a test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to confirm whether a person is suffering from health-damaging chronic inflammation. 

Dr. Sun says that’s partly due to the fact that systemic chronic inflammation only became a major scientific focus in the last 30-40 years in the medical community. Clear evidence emerged connecting chronic inflammation to aging, cancer, depression, and neurodegenerative disorders over the last 20 years.

The sources of chronic inflammation they have found run the gamut:

  • lack of physical exercise
  • a stressful mental state
  • chronic viral infections
  • environmental factors like pollution
  • a diet heavy with saturated and trans fat

But little by little, study by study, researchers are realizing that chronic inflammation is a result of all those factors combined.

When you put all those factors together, Dr. Sun says it should come as no surprise that people in developed countries, such as the U.S., where individuals lead more stressful and sedentary lifestyles and consume high-fat diets, suffer from chronic inflammation at higher rates than those living more natural lifestyles. 

“For example, the Mediterranean diet is better than the Western fast food diet” for lowering inflammation, Dr. Sun says.

How to reduce inflammation

Alleged cures for chronic inflammation have become popular, with advertisements for anti-inflammatory products exploding in TV commercials, magazine ads, and social media posts. Dr. Sun says many of those solutions are misleading since there is no single “fix” to the problem. Additionally, other potential solutions, including stem cell therapy, genetic modifications, and emerging nanoparticles, are still in their early testing phases. 

Instead, Dr. Sun says people should adopt wholesale lifestyle changes that the medical community agrees are effective at reducing inflammation:

  • Physical exercise: Studies have shown that increased exercise across all age groups reduces the progression of inflammation. 
  • Dietary adjustments: Researchers have established that people who eat high-sugar diets that include processed foods are at a higher risk of developing chronic inflammation.
  • Lifestyle modification: It’s not easy for most people to move to a new home, but living in areas with high levels of pollution contributes to elevated inflammation.  
  • Reduce stress: Mental health is equally important, as people with high levels of stress tend to experience higher levels of inflammation.

Until researchers identify more specific therapies, Dr. Sun says a healthier diet combined with more physical activity and reduced stress should go a long way. She suggests eating mushrooms and berries, taking Omega-3 supplements, and cooking with coconut oil. 

Dr. Sun says her patients are often shocked and sometimes overwhelmed when they hear the entire rundown of recommendations.

Many patients want a pill or a simple fix to the problem, and doctors often prescribe anti-inflammatory medications, steroids, or other treatments to help reduce symptoms. But Dr. Sun says those are only temporary reprieves and counsels her patients that truly reducing chronic inflammation requires nothing short of a new lifestyle.

“In my clinic, I always have counseling,” she says. “I tell them, ‘This is your second career. This is your job. Create a schedule to do everything for a good lifestyle: healthy food, regular physical exercise, quality sleep, managing stress, and staying positive.'”


Written by Alan Gomez, a contributor for UHealth’s news service.


Tags: Dr. Xiaoyan Sun, immune cells, neurology care in Miami, weakened immune system

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