anti-inflammatory

An anti-inflammatory is a drug that calms inflammation — the redness, heat, swelling, and pain that flare up when tissue is injured or under immune attack. Inflammation is the body's emergency response, useful in short bursts but damaging when it runs too hot or too long, as in arthritis or asthma. Anti-inflammatory drugs turn down that response so the tissue can settle.

They come in two broad camps that work very differently. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) act narrowly, blocking the cyclooxygenase enzyme to cut one set of inflammatory mediators (prostaglandins). The corticosteroids act broadly, switching genes on and off to suppress many arms of the inflammatory and immune response at once, which makes them far more powerful but also far more burdensome over time. A newer third group, the biologics, neutralise single specific signalling molecules such as TNF.

The recurring lesson with anti-inflammatories is that inflammation is not purely an enemy. Powerful suppression — especially with steroids — relieves disease but also blunts the body's defences, raising infection risk, thinning bone and skin, and disturbing blood sugar and mood. The clinical aim is the lowest effective dose for the shortest necessary time, calming a harmful fire without leaving the house defenceless.