Inflammation and Your Heart: What You Should Know

Inflammation is a word we often hear, but what does it really mean? In simple terms, inflammation is the body's natural healing response. For example, if you cut your finger, the area becomes red, warm, and swollen – that’s inflammation in action, helping fight infection and repair the damage. This kind of short-term (acute) inflammation is a good thing.

But if inflammation sticks around for too long inside your body, it can start doing more harm than good. One place chronic inflammation can cause trouble is your heart.

The left side shows a normal artery, while the right side shows an artery with plaque buildup (atherosclerosis) narrowing the space for blood flow. Chronic inflammation can contribute to plaque formation and, over time, make the plaque unstable. In the bottom row, a plaque progresses from formation to growth and rupture, eventually causing a blood clot that blocks the artery.

How Can Inflammation Affect the Heart?

When inflammation stays active for too long, it can seriously affect your heart and blood vessels. One major connection is through atherosclerosis – the buildup of plaque (fatty deposits) inside arteries. Risk factors like smoking, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or high LDL (“bad”) cholesterol can injure the inner walls of your arteries. In response, your body treats this like an injury and sends immune cells and inflammatory chemicals to the area.

While the intention is to help, this constant inflammation in the artery wall actually makes things worse by adding to plaque buildup. Over time, plaque plus inflammation narrows the arteries, making it harder for blood to flow. Worse, inflammation can make a plaque more likely to rupture (break open), which can trigger a blood clot that suddenly blocks blood flow – causing a heart attack or stroke.

Healthy Habits to Reduce Inflammation

The good news is that lifestyle changes can greatly reduce inflammation and improve your heart health. In fact, the steps for reducing inflammation are often the same steps for overall cardiovascular wellness. Here are a few proven tips:

• Eat a heart-healthy diet: Focus on anti-inflammatory foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, fish, and olive oil. Try to cut back on processed meats, sugary drinks, and refined carbs. Diets high in processed and sugary foods are linked to increased inflammation and heart disease, while a Mediterranean-style eating pattern is associated with lower inflammation and reduced heart risk.

• Stay active: Regular physical activity helps lower inflammation and strengthens your heart. Aim for about 30 minutes of moderate exercise (like brisk walking) on most days. Exercise also helps manage weight, blood pressure, and stress — all factors linked to inflammation.

• Don’t smoke: Smoking is a major trigger for inflammation and directly damages your arteries. Quitting is one of the most effective steps you can take to reduce inflammation and protect your heart.

• Manage stress: Chronic stress can keep your body in "fight or flight" mode, raising inflammation levels. Practices like deep breathing, yoga, or meditation can help lower stress hormones and calm inflammation.

Over time, these habits don’t just reduce inflammation — they help you feel better, sleep more soundly, and live more actively.

Medications and Inflammation

While lifestyle is the foundation, sometimes medications can play a role in reducing inflammation:

• Statins: Best known for lowering LDL cholesterol, statins also reduce inflammation in artery walls.

• Low-dose aspirin: May help prevent blood clots and has mild anti-inflammatory effects, though it isn’t right for everyone.

• Other medications: If you have chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, treating those conditions can reduce your cardiovascular risk as well.

Your cardiologist may recommend specific treatments based on your individual health profile.

Talk to Your Doctor

Everyone’s risk is different, and inflammation can affect each person in unique ways. If you’re concerned about inflammation and your heart health, talk with your cardiologist. A simple blood test (like C-reactive protein) can help assess your inflammation level.

Together, you and your cardiologist can build a plan to reduce inflammation and protect your heart.

Remember: small changes — like adding veggies to your plate or going for a daily walk — can have a big impact over time. Taking care of inflammation is taking care of your heart.