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The awareness week about type 2 inflammation will take place from May 18th to 22nd, 2026.
When your body is faced with illness, injury, or the presence of foreign bodies such as viruses, bacteria, or parasites, inflammation is the body’s method of defending itself and starting the healing process.
The immune system responds to illness and injury by sending inflammatory cells to fight off these threats. The result is called acute inflammation, which you may experience as:
- Pain or tenderness
- Fever
- swelling
- Red skin at the injury site
Although the feeling is unpleasant, this type of inflammation is a healthy response. It disappears once the body is healed.
However, with chronic inflammation, your body continues to send out inflammatory cells for months or even years without any threat. In these cases, the process that was supposed to heal your body ends up damaging it.
Health care providers (HCPs) call this type 2 inflammation. “I describe type 2 inflammation as a specific category of swelling in the body that is often associated with allergic diseases that can occur in multiple organs at once, such as the skin, nose, airways and lungs,” said Payel Gupta, MD, a triple-board-certified allergist and clinical associate professor at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. York. “If you have this type of inflammation in one part of your body, you may also have it in another.”
Related Disorders
Because your skin, nose, airways, and lungs are places where type 2 inflammation can occur, the list of conditions associated with this type of inflammation, including those that occur simultaneously, is extensive. Some common disorders that occur at the same time are:
- Allergies: An allergy is a reaction of the immune system to a normally harmless substance, such as certain foods or plants. People who do not suffer from this allergy generally do not react to this substance.
- Asma: Asthma is a lung disease that causes inflammation and narrowing of the airways in the lungs, which can lead to mild or severe breathing difficulties.
- Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRScPN): In this chronic inflammatory disease, benign neoplasms called nasal polyps form in your sinuses or nose and can cause problematic symptoms such as sinus pressure and difficulty breathing. Nasal polyps often recur even after surgery to remove them.
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): This condition causes the airways and other parts of your lungs to deteriorate, making it difficult to breathe. Smoking is the most common cause of COPD, but there are also other causes, such as pollution.
- eczema: Eczema is a chronic inflammatory condition that causes the skin to become inflamed, dry, and itchy. Atopic dermatitis is the most common form of eczema.
- Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE): This chronic condition occurs in response to triggers such as certain foods or environmental allergens. A person’s esophagus becomes flooded with white blood cells, causing painful inflammation of the esophagus. It may become difficult to eat or swallow comfortably.
- Nodular prurigo: This condition, which causes raised, itchy bumps on the skin, can occur anywhere on the body but is most common on the stomach, arms, and legs.
- Urticaria: Urticaria is the medical term for hives, which are red, itchy bumps that appear anywhere on the body and often go away on their own. Over a period of weeks or even months, hives can appear and disappear again and again, often for no apparent reason. This is called chronic spontaneous urticaria.
If people have two or more of these conditions, Gupta said healthcare providers should consider whether underlying type 2 inflammation could be making these conditions worse. “Environmental triggers, including allergens such as pollen, animal dander, dust mites or mold, as well as pollution or infections, can trigger or worsen type 2 inflammation,” he said. “In these cases, it is important to alleviate the underlying type 2 inflammation as much as possible to reduce the severity of comorbidities.”
A lack of awareness of type 2 inflammation among both patients and healthcare providers can lead to late diagnosis, especially if you have more than one condition. This lack of awareness also means that the conditions can place a huge burden on your quality of life and you may not realize that your chronic inflammatory conditions are likely to be much more manageable with specialist treatment.
Diagnosis of type 2 inflammation
To treat underlying inflammation, a healthcare provider must identify inflammation that encompasses more than just one condition, such as: B. Asthma or EoE. One way for doctors to determine whether you have widespread inflammation is to measure the number of eosinophils in your blood.
Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that protect the body from allergens. They can also be a marker for type 2 inflammation. If your blood contains too many eosinophils, this may help your doctor diagnose type 2 inflammation.
Another way your doctor can detect type 2 inflammation in your body is by using a breathing test called an exhaled nitric oxide fraction test. This test measures the amount of nitric oxide you exhale with each breath. The more nitric oxide there is, the more inflamed your airways become, Gupta said.
What type of healthcare provider can diagnose or treat conditions related to type 2 inflammation?
According to Gupta, it is not always necessary to see a specialist immediately if your medical conditions are well controlled. “But if you feel like your symptoms are not under control or you are not responding well to your current treatments, you should seek a referral to a specialist.”
Of course, it may be that you are already having consultations with a specialist. For example, people with eczema might see a dermatologist, someone with EoE would likely see a gastroenterologist, and someone with COPD would likely see a pulmonologist.
If you suffer from complicated conditions such as type 2 inflammation, it is important that you receive support from a multidisciplinary medical team. Therefore, you should also consult an allergist. Allergists can help treat all types of conditions related to type 2 inflammation and should have up-to-date information on medications that may be helpful. “Many of the drugs used for type 2 inflammation may be useful in more than one condition, but they are typically biopharmaceuticals that require specialized access and knowledge,” Gupta said.
Disturbance control, not cure
Unfortunately, there is no cure for allergic disease or type 2 inflammatory disease. “We can control it with medication, but it is important to understand that if you stop taking your medication, your type 2 inflammation will likely return,” Gupta said.
If you don’t continue to control the underlying inflammation, the flare-ups will continue and are likely to get worse, sometimes even worse. “External triggers such as pollution, allergens and infections can also lead to further inflammation.” [la inflamación que ya tienes] and then your body can have serious problems,” he said. “That’s why we’re still having 11 asthma deaths a day in this country, because we’re not properly controlling that underlying inflammation.”
On the other hand, if patients with type 2 inflammation-related diseases can control their inflammation with an appropriate medication regimen and continue to monitor their diseases, the prognosis is positive. “With all the good therapeutic options available to us, we should be able to control conditions associated with type 2 inflammation to the point where you may barely notice that you have asthma, EoE or hives,” Gupta said. “Effective therapies and team decisions to choose the best therapy for you will ultimately bring your type 2 inflammation under control.”
This educational resource was created with support from Regeneron and Sanofi, a member of the HealthyWomen Corporate Advisory Board.
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