Cause of Rheumatic Disease

Discover the cause of Inflammatory Disease and the role that the hormone cortisole plays in subduing inflammation; learn why cortisole can not have side effects.

Cause (for laypersons)

Stenberg’s university research team discovered the body’s inflammation control system. The cause of rheumatic disease is the failure of this system. With this failure, inflammation from injuries, allergies and infections evolve into long-term, destructive inflammation common to inflammatory disease.

The problem of inflammatory disease is long-term, destructive inflammation with its heat, redness, swelling and pain has settled into an area of the body. When the inflammation settles into the bursa, it is probably bursitis; in the knees, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis; in the pancreas, pancreatitis; in the heart, carditis; in the blood, phlebitis; in the muscles, myositis; and so forth. The suffix itis means inflammation.

Short-term, beneficial inflammation from injuries, allergies, infections and stress is the body’s response to prevent infection. Except for residence time, the inflammation of short-term, beneficial inflammation is identical with that of the long-term, destructive inflammation.

After short-term, beneficial inflammation has performed its task, the body produces a pulse or surge of the body’s inflammation-controlling hormone cortisol to prevent it from evolving into the long-term, destructive inflammation. As the cortisol pulse weakens with age, injury or genetics, long-term, destructive inflammation happens, first intermittently, then continuously.


Cause (for scientists)

The newly discovered endocrine control system quenches short-term, beneficial inflammation within hours after an inflammatory insult from injury, allergy, infection and stress. When this system malfunctions, short-term, beneficial inflammation evolves into long-term, destructive inflammation. Localized inflammation will spread to other sites by inflammatory mediators emitted from the initial inflammation.

With short-term, beneficial inflammation, leaky blood vessels occur in the area of inflammatory insult. Swelling results from a faster rate of plasma inflow into the inflaming area than outflow with each heart beat. Pain results from tissues under tension. As plasma dilutes inflaming tissues, immune cells emigrate from the blood to render harmless foreign bodies.

The inflammation is terminated by a cortisol pulse integral to the endocrine inflammation control system illustrated in Figure 1. The cortisol pulse seals the leaky blood vessels. After sealing, the swelling and pain diminish, and healing ensues.


Figure 1. The endocrine inflammation control system [Stenberg VI, Bouley MG, Katz BM, Lee KJ, Parmar SS Negative endocrine control system for inflammation in rats, Agents and Actions, 29, 18, 1990]

With a weakened cortisol pulse, any one or more of maladies with long-term, destructive inflammation threaten.

Autoimmune body tissue destruction is a consequence of long-term, destructive inflammation. With long-term inflammation, immune cells continually enter an inflamed site without cause. As these cells accumulate, die and cell walls rupture, immune cell enzymes unrestrained by cell walls indiscriminately dismantle body tissues as well as tissues of foreign bodies.


Cause (for physicians)

Cortisol is a hormone of the body and as such can have no side effects. Side effects that have been assigned to a hormone administration is not due to the hormone itself but rather to overuse of it through lack of understanding. Cortisol is the only substance produced by the body able to quench all aspects of the inflammation response.

Except for residence time, the inflammation of short-term, beneficial inflammation is identical with that of the long-term, destructive inflammation common to many rheumatic diseases. Short-term, beneficial inflammation, as from injuries and infection, is the body’s response to prevent infection.

After short-term, beneficial inflammation has performed its task, the body produces a cortisol pulse or concentration surge in the blood to prevent it from evolving into the long-term, destructive inflammation. When the cortisol pulse weakens with age, injury and inheritance, inflammatory disease symptoms happen, first intermittently then continuously. Patients with inflammatory disease have bodies that can no longer control inflammation adequately. This is because there is a defective cortisol pulse to control inflammation from injuries, allergies, infections and stress, cf. Figure 1. Consequently, the inflammation once started lasts too long. Then someplace, sometime, someone will likely say “Now arthritis has set in.”