You are here, reading this site, because somehow you know that inflammation is an important factor in your health.

And you may want to know how to find out if chronic or acute inflammation is stealing your health from you, right now?

How do you go about finding out? That is the question this post will answer…

There are actually two tests that can be done:

1. C-Reactive Protein Test (cRP for short)
2. Erythrocyte Sediment Rate Test (ESR for short)

Which is better? Well, each gives the same type of information but the c-reactive protein test is favored by most doctors because it is viewed as a more “current” indicator of inflammation levels.

So, chances are, when you visit the doctor he will order you up a CRP, send you to the lab and wait for results.

What will you be hoping NOT to see?

You don’t want to find a high or increasing amount of CRP in your blood. This would suggest that you have an acute infection with lots of localized inflammation or systemic (whole body) inflammation.

In a healthy person, the CRP level is usually less than 10 mg/L. In fact, in a healthy individual there is no CRP detectable in the blood at all.

But most serious infections and unbalanced inflammatory conditions result in CRP levels well above 100 mg/L.

A better CRP test?

There is a more sensitive CRP test, called a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) assay. This more elaborate and expensive test is usually prescribed to determine a person’s risk for heart disease because many medical professionals realize the connection between inflammation and heart disease.

The range between normal and high risk is much smaller in the hs-CRP test. If your hs-CRP level is lower than 1.0 mg/L, you have a low risk of developing cardiovascular disease but if your levels of hs-CRP level is higher than 3.0 mg/L, you have a high risk of heart disease.

In fact, studies show that the risk for heart attack and other related heart diseases in people in the high risk hs-CRP category is twice that of those whose hs-CRP level is in the normal risk range.

Indeed, a growing number of heart health related studies have examined what high levels of hs-CRP predicts and have found a consistent connection with:

• recurrent coronary events
• lower survival rates
• risk that an artery will reclose after it’s been opened by balloon angioplasty
• recurrent events in patients with stroke or peripheral arterial disease

So, is it important for you to know your personal CRP or hs-CRP?

Well, of course you should ask your doctor that question but think about this. Would you do anything different if you found out that you did have high levels of inflammation in your body? Would you eat healthier? Would you exercise? Would you avoid stressful and toxic environments?

Perhaps… Sometimes a dose of cold hard facts turns out to be a wake up call.

But, in the meantime, why wait for a severe infection or the onset of heart disease to prompt your doctor to prescribe a CRP test. Take action now by doing everything you can to avoid inflammatory triggers and balance your inflammatory response.