How to Measure Inflammation: Key Inflammatory Markers
What are the best inflammatory markers in blood tests?
Updated December 6, 2023.
Inflammation is part of your body’s immune response—it influences the health of your cardiovascular system, affects how quickly your injuries heal, and plays a role in determining whether or not you catch a cold. Inflammation affects everyone—young, old, athletes, or non-athletes.
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is your body’s way of protecting itself from harmful stimuli, including damaged cells, irritants, or pathogens.
Inflammation plays a critical role in maintaining your body’s immune system and heart function, and in keeping you healthy. Injuries, over-training, and allergic reactions can also cause inflammation. While it affects everyone, it is especially important for athletes to control inflammation in order to feel good, stay healthy, and compete at peak performance.
Infection is not the same as inflammation. Infections occur when bacteria, viruses, or fungi invade your body, while inflammation occurs when your body tries to remove those invaders.
» Discover more about the hidden dangers of inflammation
How can you measure inflammation?
Sometimes when you are injured or you have an infection, you can see symptoms of inflammation—swollen, red, hot patches on your body, but inflammation may occur without any signs or pain. The best way to detect inflammation is by measuring inflammatory markers like high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and white blood cell count with a blood test.
C-reactive protein (CRP) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) tests
CRP, a protein in the blood, is one of the best indicators of inflammation that we have. Levels of CRP rise as inflammation increases, so getting a CRP or hsCRP test can tell you a lot about what’s going on inside your body.
According to the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a CRP concentration of below 1.0 mg/L indicates low risk for heart problems; between 1.0 to 3.0 mg/L is an average risk for heart problems; above 3.0 mg/L as high risk for heart problems.
Very high levels of CRP (more than 10 mg/L) can also indicate an impaired immune response or chronic conditions like inflammatory disease. [1]
| Low risk: | < 1.0 mg/L |
| Average risk: | 1.0 - 3.0 mg/L |
| High risk: | > 3.0 mg/L |
| Very high risk: | > 10 mg/L |
Since CRP is a protein found in your blood, the only way to get information about your levels is to have marker test results analyzed at your doctor's or primary care office—or through a service such as InsideTracker.
» Learn all about inflammation and heart health
A complete blood count CBC panel to measure white blood cells (WBCs)
WBCs play an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system, searching the blood for invading viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
When a foreign virus or bacteria enters your bloodstream, the white blood cell, or leukocyte, recognizes and destroys the invading particle before it can cause disease. Since white blood cells fight off infection, you might think that an elevated white blood cell count is actually beneficial—but this is not necessarily the case.
Although a high white blood cell count isn’t a specific disease, it can indicate another problem, such as infection, stress, inflammation, trauma, allergy, or certain diseases. That’s why a high WBC count usually requires further investigation.
InsideTracker tests and measures your white blood cell count and will tell you whether it is in your optimal zone. Your white blood cell count might vary between testing centers and testing methods, but generally, the normal range for adults is 4,500-10,500. Above 10,500 is considered to be high.
» Find out how inflammation affects your iron levels
How to manage inflammation and inflammatory symptoms
1. Diet
What you eat has an effect on inflammation. [2] To keep your levels in check, avoid eating foods that are high in calories, sugar, fat, and salt (such as fast foods). Aim for foods that are high in antioxidants like vitamins C and E, fiber, calcium, fish oils, mono-unsaturated fats, and low on the glycemic index.
Specific foods that have been shown to have an effect on lowering inflammation include garlic, grapes, herbs and spices, nuts, olive oil, black and green teas, and vinegar. [3, 4, 5] Aim to eat at least six servings of fruits and vegetables daily, to benefit your inflammation levels while supplying important nutrients. If you are overweight, losing weight will reduce inflammation, too.
You can decrease inflammation and reduce your CRP levels and WBC count in a few ways. If your CRP or WBC levels are high, InsideTracker will give you personalized recommendations to help you control inflammation.
2. Exercise
Studies have shown that regular exercise [6] can reduce inflammation by 20-60% and lower your white blood cell count during and after exercise. That’s why athletes, especially swimmers, have some of the lowest levels of inflammation around.
The bad news for weekend warriors is that inconsistent exercise can have the opposite effect on inflammation—engaging in intense but irregular exercise can raise your white blood cell count, increase inflammation, and weaken your immune system.
Prolonged strenuous exercise (i.e., running a marathon) can actually triple white blood cell levels and athletes who over-train can increase inflammation and weaken their immune systems, making it more difficult for them to properly recover.
» Read more about inflammation and whether it's affecting your training and recovery
3. Supplements
Sometimes, diet and exercise are not enough to reduce inflammation, in which case, taking supplements may help. Vitamins C, D, and E have all been linked to promoting healthy levels of inflammation. Taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily may reduce your CRP levels by 25%.
Long-distance runners or triathletes can cut their risk of developing upper respiratory tract infections in half by taking 600 mg per day of vitamin C. This dose also aids in reducing the severity and duration of infections.
Vitamin D also appears to play a role in reducing inflammation. Research shows that those with adequate levels of vitamin D in their blood were less likely to develop inflammation. Each 10ng/ml increase in serum vitamin D is associated with a 25% reduction in CRP. [7] So make sure you soak up a few minutes of sunshine daily or consider taking a supplement to get your D fix.
4. Sleep
Getting more and better quality sleep will help to reduce your inflammation levels. To improve your sleep, try going to bed 30 minutes earlier each night and sleeping in a completely dark room.
» Find out how to get a restful night's sleep without changing your bedtime
Control excess inflammation with InsideTracker
Keep in mind that inflammation is a response to an activated immune system. Blood tests for inflammation markers like CRP and WBCs offered through your doctor or as part of an InsideTracker plan, can offer valuable information about inflammation occurring within your body. You can control or mitigate excess inflammation through what you eat, regularly exercising, taking the appropriate supplements when needed, and getting quality sleep.
If inflammation levels are high, InsideTracker will recommend nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, and supplement changes that can help you optimize them and improve your performance and well-being.
References:
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4669860/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075620/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7402177/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6032205/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5691704/
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3320801/
[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26413186/
