Study debunks idea that aging and inflammation are linked
Inflammation and the diseases it causes, such as cancer or Alzheimer's, are thought to be due more to our diet and environment than to aging. This contradicts a preconceived notion inherited from scientific bias.
For a long time, it was believed that there was no aging without inflammation. In other words, inflammation was inseparable from aging. The term " inflammaging, " a portmanteau of inflammation and aging , is even used to describe a persistent inflammatory condition observed in older people.
But a new study, published June 30 in Nature Aging , challenges this link. Analyzing blood samples from about 2,800 adults aged 18 to 95, its authors show that persistent, so-called "low-grade" inflammation may be more a result of diet, Western lifestyle, or the environment than of aging.
One of them, Alan Cohen of Columbia University in New York,explained to Nature that we need to “completely rethink the nature of inflammation.”
“Everything we think is universal is actually based on studies of Western, industrialized populations, and is therefore probably specific to our environment.”
To reach this stunning conclusion, the researchers compared the proteins produced by immune cells and which are involved in inflammation in individuals from Italy, Singapore
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