Acute Phase Reactants

What Was I Thinkin?

(If you’re a Dierks Bentley fan, did you just sing that title in your head?)

I’m going to try to make this a weekly post. There’s so much I want to share, but I want to do it in a way that feels genuine.

This week, it’s been about positive and negative acute phase reactants. And how protective the body’s responses during inflammation are.

When the immune system is activated, the body intentionally shifts certain nutrients, which can make lab values look off. But with enough context around understanding what’s going on in someone’s life and body, we can interpret those numbers more accurately and distinguish protection from pathology.

Positive acute phase reactants increase in the blood to support immune defense and repair (such as copper, ferritin, and C-reactive protein).

Negative acute phase reactants decrease because the body is prioritizing safety and containment over storage or growth (such as zinc, iron, and albumin).

This is the body’s innate, intelligent, and adaptive response.

Sometimes, those out of range values are interpreted as something that needs to be fixed immediately, when the more appropriate question is “what is the body responding to, and does it have the conditions it needs to complete that response?”

Once that context is understood, the story often shifts from “something is wrong” to “something is being protected.”

Tell me something you reflected on this week (in health, work, or life) that changed how you see things, even a little?