321: Inflammation Pseudoscience

Inflammation is an important and necessary part of the body’s healing process. It’s also long been a wellness buzzword used to sell products that do very little to treat it. This week, we look at inflammation through the lens of a new Mother Jones article, “The Great Inflammation Panic,” including an interview with the author, Julia Métraux, in segment two. We’ll also discuss what inflammation is, how wellness influencers weaponize it, and what it represents in the context of Ayurveda.

Show Notes

The Great Inflammation Panic

Chronic Inflammation and Cancer

NIH Autoimmune Diseases

Celiac Disease

Cambridge press release — "Chronic diseases misdiagnosed as psychosomatic can lead to long term damage"

Sloan et al., "I still can't forget those words" — Rheumatology (2025), DOI 10.1093/rheumatology/keaf115

Vasculitis diagnostic-delay data — PubMed

Miranda Fricker interview — Philosophy Bites

Bleuler 1911 coinage — NCBI Bookshelf, The Metamorphosis of Autism

Bleuler's original 1911 text excerpt — Autism History Project

Sontag, "Illness as Metaphor" — full text, NYRB

Louise Hay — Natural Ways to Treat Autoimmune Disease

Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No — critical review, Globe and Mail
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