You eat well, get enough sleep, and seem to live a healthy lifestyle. But you’re constantly tired and can’t figure out why? There may be a quiet process already under way in your body. Doctors call it low-grade chronic inflammation, or simply chronic inflammation.

The tricky part is that it isn’t always visible even on lab tests: C-reactive protein, for instance, may be elevated — or it may stay within the normal range. Either way, the inflammatory process can still be under way.

Unlike acute inflammation after an injury or infection, this kind of inflammation doesn’t hurt and doesn’t draw attention. But over the years it wears the body down and raises the risk of cardiovascular, metabolic, autoimmune, and other diseases¹. The cause is almost never a single one — it’s usually a combination of everyday factors: what you eat, how much you move, how you handle stress, whether you have hidden infections, and what your body is exposed to every day.

Below, we break down each of the five areas, backed by specific studies and numbers.

Key facts:

• Trans fats raise the risk of coronary heart disease by roughly 23% for every additional 2% of calories they contribute.
• 7,000 steps a day lower all-cause mortality risk by 47% and dementia risk by 38%.
• Chronic stress switches off cortisol’s anti-inflammatory effect, even when cortisol levels themselves are normal.
• Hidden sources of infection (teeth, gums) can sustain background inflammation for years without obvious symptoms.
• Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) measurably raises inflammation even in healthy people.

What actually triggers chronic inflammation

Chronic inflammation is a persistently elevated level of pro-inflammatory cytokines: IL-6, TNF-α, and others. It arises from ongoing, often subtle disruptions in the body². Unlike an acute response to injury, there is no single clear “trigger” here — instead, several factors build up at once.

Learn more: What Is Chronic Inflammation

Here, we’ll focus on the practical side: what to do.

1. Diet against inflammation

Diet is a factor you control every day, which makes it the most rewarding lever to work with.

Omega-3 to omega-6 balance

Omega-3 fats are the raw material for anti-inflammatory compounds: resolvins and protectins. Omega-6 fats are the raw material for pro-inflammatory ones, chiefly prostaglandin E2. Traditionally, the human diet contained them in roughly a 1:1 ratio. The modern Western diet has shifted that ratio to about 1:15–20³. That imbalance is an often-overlooked but significant part of the overall inflammatory load. It’s not that omega-6 fats are “bad” on their own — the body needs them too. The problem is the imbalance, not any single food.

How to restore the balance

• Eat fatty fish 2–3 times a week: salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring.
• Replace at least some of the sunflower and corn oil you cook with with olive oil (even though it doesn’t contain that much omega-3, it reduces inflammation.).
• Check the ingredient list on sauces and snacks: soybean and cottonseed oil are often hiding there.

Trans fats

Trans fats form during partial hydrogenation — a chemical reaction that turns liquid fat into solid fat. A typical example is turning vegetable oil into a solid fat for baked goods, or replacing expensive milk fat with a cheaper substitute.

The effect is striking in scale: every additional 2% of calories from trans fats raises the risk of coronary heart disease by roughly 23%⁴. For comparison, that is on the same order as the effect of some cholesterol-lowering drugs. One important nuance: small amounts of trans fats occur naturally in dairy and the meat of ruminant animals, and these are not nearly as harmful. The concern here is specifically industrial, partially hydrogenated fats.

How to avoid them

• Check the ingredient list: “partially hydrogenated fat,” “hydrogenated oil,” “cooking fat,” “milk fat substitute,” and “confectionery fat” are all good signs a product might be worth skipping.
• Swap store-bought baked goods for nuts, fruit, or home-cooked food.
• Use margarine sparingly, or skip it altogether.

Excess sugar

Excess sugar, especially fructose, raises levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-6, which in turn increases the permeability of the gut barrier⁵. Through a “leaky” intestinal lining, compounds enter the bloodstream that further amplify inflammation — creating a vicious cycle that also underlies insulin resistance.

Learn more: Insulin Resistance: Causes and How to Recognize It (currently available in Russian)

How to cut back on sugar

• Cut back on sugary drinks (soda, juice, energy drinks) — swap them for water, herbal tea, or unsweetened coffee.
• Choose whole grains (oatmeal, buckwheat) over refined carbohydrates.
• Add berries and leafy greens to your diet as a source of antioxidants.

Insufficient fiber

Fiber itself isn’t digested by the body. It’s fermented by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids: butyrate, propionate, and acetate. These acids are what strengthen the gut barrier and suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines⁶. Fiber doesn’t work directly — it works through bacterial intermediaries. Without enough microbial diversity, even fiber on your plate won’t deliver its full effect.

How to get more fiber

• Eat at least 400 g of vegetables and fruit a day, not counting potatoes and bananas.
• Diversify your fiber sources: different vegetables feed different types of bacteria.
• Include whole grains, berries, and leafy greens.
• Use whole-grain flour.

2. Physical activity

A sedentary lifestyle is generally linked to higher levels of inflammation markers.

A large analysis published in The Lancet Public Health in 2025 pooled data from more than 160,000 people across 57 studies in different countries⁷. The result: compared with 2,000 steps a day, 7,000 steps lowered all-cause mortality risk by 47%. Dementia risk dropped by 38%, depression risk by 22%, and fall risk by 28%. Increasing further to 10,000 steps produced only a small additional benefit.

How to lower inflammation through movement

• You don’t need to run a marathon: 30 minutes of walking a day is already enough to trigger anti-inflammatory processes.
• Add light stretching or mobility exercises.
• If you’re ready for more, aim for 2–3 workouts a week (swimming, cycling, light strength training). Consistency matters more than intensity.

3. Chronic stress

Stress raises cortisol. Cortisol is supposed to reduce inflammation, and normally it does. But under prolonged stress, immune cells gradually lose their sensitivity to cortisol — a phenomenon called glucocorticoid resistance⁸. The result is a paradox: the hormone meant to dampen inflammation stops working on it. Inflammation keeps building even when cortisol levels themselves are technically normal.

How to manage stress

There are different ways to lower stress. Here are a few of the most accessible ones.

• Schedule short breaks: 10 minutes of quiet with a book, or a walk in the park, is already a reset.
• Sleep 7–8 hours and pay attention to sleep quality: insufficient or fragmented sleep amplifies the inflammatory response on its own.
• Breathing exercises: mainly various forms of slow, controlled breathing.

4. Hidden chronic infections

Sometimes inflammation doesn’t come down despite every effort with diet and activity. The cause may be an unnoticed source of infection: cavities, periodontitis, chronic tonsillitis, herpesviruses, or an untreated urinary tract infection. Such sources can sustain background inflammation and weak the immune system for years, even without obvious symptoms.

Gum disease is a telling example. A systematic review and meta-analysis found a consistent link between periodontitis and elevated inflammatory markers, and treating periodontitis measurably lowers those markers⁹. The problem is that early-stage periodontitis barely hurts, so people can go years without suspecting it.

Doctors use various tests to assess inflammatory activity: C-reactive protein, ESR, and sometimes more specific markers like interleukin-6. High-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) is the most accessible and most commonly ordered of these, but it is far from the only one and is not always informative on its own.

Learn more: C-Reactive Protein: What an Elevated Result Means (currently available in Russian)

How to address infections

• Get regular checkups, including dental exams: this is the most common hidden source of inflammation.
• If you suspect a chronic infection (frequent colds, urinary symptoms), get a thorough medical work-up.
• Support your immune system: to help lower inflammation, a doctor may recommend nutritional support, including vitamins D and C, zinc, and probiotics.

5. Environmental pollution

Toxins from air, water, and household chemicals are rarely discussed, but their effect is measurable. A study published in Circulation Research found that episodes of elevated fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were associated with vascular endothelial damage and increased systemic inflammation, even in healthy young people¹⁰. The source of these particles is not necessarily outdoors: household dust, cooking fumes, and some cleaning products can create a comparable indoor exposure.

How to reduce exposure

• Use air purifiers at home, especially near heavy traffic: even a basic HEPA-filter model helps.
• Drink filtered water: this reduces your intake of heavy metals.
• Choose household products and cosmetics free of parabens and phthalates.
• Spend time in nature: a forest or a park reduces both pollution exposure and stress levels.

Frequently asked questions

How quickly does chronic inflammation go down after changing your diet?

The first changes in inflammation markers can appear within a few weeks of sustained dietary change, but a stable effect usually takes 2–3 months.

How can you tell inflammation is actually going down?

The most reliable way is to track the tests a doctor orders — CRP or other markers, depending on the situation. But CRP is just one tool, and a normal value doesn’t always mean inflammation is completely absent. How you feel, your energy levels, and sleep quality also indirectly reflect the process.

Learn more: Chronic inflammation calculator based on hs-CRP (currently available in Russian)

Which foods increase inflammation the most?

Based on the overall evidence, trans fats (margarine, industrially baked goods) and excess sugar in beverages have the strongest and fastest pro-inflammatory effect.

Should you get tested if you have no obvious symptoms?

Yes: low-grade chronic inflammation almost never produces obvious symptoms in its early stages. An annual check of key markers can be an inexpensive way to track it over time.

Conclusion

Chronic inflammation isn’t reduced by one “magic” action, but by a combination of small, sustained changes: a balanced diet, regular movement, stress management, treating hidden infections, and reducing exposure to toxins. These work together, and the results accumulate.