What Role Does Inflammation Play in Cancer?
15 Dec 2025 · 8 min
JJ Virgin talks with Dr. Diva Nagala, an interventional pain management physician and cancer survivor, about how chronic inflammation differs from acute inflammation and why it raises cancer risk. Chronic inflammation links to infections, allergies, autoimmune conditions, and chronic disease.
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Chicago, IL what role does Inflammation Play in Cancer? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times Best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Viv from Instagram asks, what role does inflammation play in cancer? Hey, it's JJ and I've got Dr. Diva Nagala, a board certified physician specializing in interventional pain management and fellowship, trained in integrative medicine and most importantly, a cancer survivor, here with me to answer this question. And when he's not practicing medicine, he's practicing at golf. In fact, he's so passionate about it, he even birdied the infamous hole number 12 at Augusta National. And that, my friends, is where the Masters are held. He'll be right back with the answer. Stay with me. Hey, J.J. virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things and suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. If you it's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface. On your laptop or on your phone. Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now, I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware. This season, Monarch does the heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes, gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of your reset could be a real goal this time. Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virgin@monarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with the code Virgin.
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Inflammation can be defined as a spectrum. On one end we have acute inflammation, and on the other hand we have chronic. Acute is something we're all familiar with. For example, if we scrape our arm against something sharp and cut ourselves, we can see the process of how acute inflammation ensues. First there's bleeding and then the bleeding stops. Then there's the inflammation stage where there's swelling, redness, and some mild discomfort. Then eventually this subsides and everything returns back to normal. That's the normal process of healing from an acute inflammatory process. In the chronic inflammatory stage, there's a stimulus that continues and it persists, and the process of inflammation is ongoing and there's never any reduction of the inflammatory processes. Think of the stimulus that causes a skin abrasion. In the acute stage, the stimulus goes away and the healing can begin. In the chronic stage, the stimulus persists and it's left unchecked. It kicks our immune system into overdrive and the immune system doesn't have a chance to rest. As a result, people who suffer from chronic inflammation are more prone to infections, allergies, autoimmune conditions, chronic disease, and even cancer.
This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.
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