Inflammation, what we commonly know as the swelling, redness, heat, and pain that often accompany injuries, is one of our body’s most important natural defense mechanisms against internal and external threats. The inflammatory process protects our body from damage and disease by releasing cells and mediators that combat foreign substances and help prevent infection. However, these same inflammatory elements can also be deadly to the body when “switched on” too long, a condition known as chronic inflammation. Research has indicated that chronic inflammation is common in the nerve cells of patients with HD, and that it may be a powerful mediator of HD’s neurodegenerative damage. A more complete picture of how inflammation may act as a disease mechanism in HD can be found by clicking here.
Because the constant pain that often accompanies chronic inflammation is often a source of complaint in many diseases, there are a relatively large number of anti-inflammatory drugs and therapies available. However, most of these treatments target inflammation at a general level, and were not designed to block the inflammatory response specifically in the nerve cells affected by HD. As such, they can lead to unwanted side effects. The following anti-inflammatory drugs and supplements presented below have either the theoretical potential to alleviate inflammatory damage in the brains of patients with HD, or have been tested on other neurological diseases in which inflammation is a disease mechanism, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Some experiments and/or clinical trials of these treatments have been done on either animals or human patients with HD.
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