why-inflammation-matters,-and-what-we-can-do-to-fight-it
Why inflammation matters, and what we can do to fight it
#inbox
![Cover](https://wsrv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fuploads.guim.co.uk%2F2021%2F11%2F17%2FScienceWeekly_FINAL_3000.jpeg&w=200&h=200)
Episode metadata
- Episode title: Why inflammation matters, and what we can do to fight it
- Show: Science Weekly
- Owner / Host: The Guardian
- Episode link: open in Snipd
- Episode publish date: 2023-07-06
Show notes
> Ian Sample talks to Dr David Furman, an expert on inflammation and ageing at Stanford University. He explains how chronic inflammation is affecting our health and how lifestyle choices can help us fight it.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod- Export date: 2023-07-06T17:59
Snips
[01:24] The Link Between Inflammation and Chronic Diseases
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (00:40 - 01:31)
✨ Key takeaways
- Chronic inflammation is linked to various diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, and metabolic disorders
- Rates of these diseases are expected to increase in the future
- Studying chronic inflammation could help us live longer and healthier lives
- Contrary to popular belief, slowing down as we age may not be beneficial
- Understanding the causes of chronic inflammation and finding ways to reduce or reverse its impact is important
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 1
From cancer to cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, metabolic disorders, and the list goes on and on.
Speaker 2
And rates of these diseases are only set to increase, which is why this relatively new field of science could hold the key to helping us all live longer and crucially healthier lives.
Speaker 1
So as we get older, many doctors will tell you you should slow down because they're swearing tear. What we want is actually quite the opposite.
Speaker 2
So what do we need to know about the causes of chronic inflammation? And how can we reduce and even reverse its impact? I'm the Guardian Science Editor Ian Sample, and this is Science Weekly.
[02:22] Causes of Chronic Inflammation and How to Reduce its Impact | Science Weekly
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (01:03 - 02:28)
✨ Key takeaways
- Doctors often advise older individuals to slow down as they age, but the opposite is actually true.
- Understanding the causes of chronic inflammation is important for managing its impact.
- Reducing and reversing the effects of chronic inflammation is possible.
- Dr. David Ferman is involved in various projects and holds multiple roles in the field of inflammation research.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 1
So as we get older, many doctors will tell you you should slow down because they're swearing tear. What we want is actually quite the opposite.
Speaker 2
So what do we need to know about the causes of chronic inflammation? And how can we reduce and even reverse its impact? I'm the Guardian Science Editor Ian Sample, and this is Science Weekly.
Speaker 1
Yeah, near to the church and the countryside. It's beautiful, but sometimes...
Speaker 3
It sounds wonderful!
Speaker 2
Dr David Ferman is Director of the 1000 Immunomes Project at Stanford University School of Medicine, and an Associate Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. But when we spoke, he was in sunny France. Are you working in France at the moment, or are you on holiday?
Speaker 1
I don't really know the distinction between the two. I live in a very pleasant environment in By the Beach in San Francisco. For me, that's a year-round vacation, but I work every day. This is no different from that. We're enjoying the South of France, and I'm working remotely. I have two groups, and I have two startup companies. I'm also a founder of the National Inflammaging Institute. So a lot of things going on. I can't stop working. I can't afford that.
Speaker 2
It's safe to say. He's been pretty busy.
[04:18] - The inflammatory response and its impact on aging and diseases
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (02:52 - 04:21)
✨ Key takeaways
- The inflammatory response is a mechanism for the body to react to foreign entities and infections.
- Acute inflammation typically lasts for three to seven days.
- Age-associated inflammation is sustained over time and can lead to the development of diseases of aging.
- High levels of systemic chronic inflammation increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, and cancer.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 1
The inflammatory response is a mechanism for the body to react to foreign entities, and namely infections. It really helps the whole immune system to react to foreign bodies and clear up those infectious agents. And in a normal setting, that should go back to baseline in about, say, three to seven days.
Speaker 2
Okay, so that's acute inflammation. But you're focused on something different. So tell me about that and what it might be doing to us.
Speaker 1
The inflammation that I am mostly focused on is rather the age-associated inflammation, which is sustained over time. It causes collateral damage in tissues and organs, increasing the likelihood of developing the most nasty, very feared diseases of aging. We're talking about cardiovascular disease. So high levels of systemic chronic inflammation increases the risk of heart attack, metabolic disorders that include type two diabetes and metabolic syndrome, musculoskeletal conditions, namely bone joint ailments. We have osteoporosis. It's largely driven by systemic chronic inflammation. Cancer. So cancer cells, they need inflammation to actually replicate and metastasize.
[06:09] The Role of Chronic Inflammation in Aging and Disease
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (04:43 - 06:10)
✨ Key takeaways
- The science suggests that chronic inflammation plays a significant role in overall health.
- Inflammation accelerates the aging process in our bodies.
- Inflammation defines rates of aging in different organs.
- Chronic inflammation is a low grade but heightened immune system response.
- Chronic inflammation results in a sustained elevation of certain biomarkers or leading proteins in blood.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 2
So clearly the science is suggesting this chronic inflammation is playing a really significant role in our overall health. And we'd expect to see a degree of increased inflammation as we age, wouldn't we? So is inflammation accelerating the aging process in our bodies?
Speaker 1
That's exactly right. It defines rates of aging in different organs. This idea was put forward by Claudia Franceschi in the University of Bologna in early 2000. Before then, we had no clue that inflammation leads the way in defining rates of aging and increasing likelihood of diseases. This is a rather new field.
Speaker 2
So should I think of that chronic inflammation as a sort of low grade but heightened response that's ongoing from the immune system? And if I've got that right, what is the mechanism? What's it actually doing to our organs and tissues?
Speaker 1
The definition is correct. It's typically low grade. This means that it's not like the acute response where the biomarkers increase significantly in the tissue, but rather this is a very mild increase but sustained elevation in some of the biomarkers or the leading proteins that increase in its expression in blood.
[08:04] Triggers and Chronic Inflammation in Adulthood
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (07:11 - 08:03)
✨ Key takeaways
- Triggers in adulthood and factors in childhood can both contribute to inflammation.
- Humans have developed inflammation as a result of moving to a new environment.
- Chronic stressors can lead to systemic chronic inflammation in the body.
- The body's mechanisms to cope with inflammation are not in place due to sustained chronic social stress.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 2
Are there triggers in adulthood, can factors in childhood matter too?
Speaker 1
The bottom line, what we're experiencing here is a distance from our evolutionary experience. We have evolved in a very particular environment. Now any species that you move to a new environment by definition will develop inflammation, and that's exactly the case of humans as well. There are a number of chronic stressors that will ultimately cause systemic chronic inflammation in the body because the mechanisms that we have to cope with inflammation and to bring it back to baseline are not in place because of this sustained chronic social stress.
[10:55] The Impact of Social Stressors on Chronic Inflammation
🎧 Play snip - 2min️ (09:09 - 10:56)
✨ Key takeaways
- The comparison with influencers and rock stars can lead to chronic stress and feelings of inadequacy.
- The high workload in our society contributes to occupational stress.
- Caring for cancer patients can be a major social stressor, leading to high levels of chronic inflammation.
- There is a clear association between psychological stress and systemic chronic inflammation.
- People in poverty or with lower socioeconomic status may experience higher levels of chronic inflammation.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 1
So the list is also very long. I can give you a few examples here of social stressors. The fact that we're comparing ourselves with all these influencers and rock stars and people want to be as famous as those individuals, this is a level of chronic stress that you're comparing yourself with someone you'll never be able to be. We're also exposed to a very high load of our work times, right? So now we're going to occupational stress. There are very good papers, examples of experiments where we've seen caregivers of cancer patients, which are a really good example of social stress, because they're taking care of a cancer patient is not an easy task. And we've seen that in cells from these individuals, there's major inflammatory biomarkers very high. When you try to bring that inflammatory response down with, say, classical drugs, you cannot. So this is a classical example where you have a social stressor, you're basically feeling psychologically stressed, and the consequences for the body in terms of systemic chronic inflammation are very clear and very detrimental.
Speaker 2
You tend to see different levels of systemic chronic inflammation across the classic divides we see in sort of inequality. Is there more chronic inflammation among people in poverty, among people with lower socioeconomic status, for example?
[11:47] Systemic Chronic Inflammation and Inequality
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (10:37 - 11:47)
✨ Key takeaways
- Different levels of systemic chronic inflammation are observed across socioeconomic divides.
- African-American communities in the U.S. experience higher levels of systemic chronic inflammation.
- Discrimination and inequality contribute to increased exposure to chronic inflammation.
- Chronic stress is a key factor in the development of associated diseases.
- Understanding the epidemiology helps explain the relationship between chronic inflammation and disease development.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 2
You tend to see different levels of systemic chronic inflammation across the classic divides we see in sort of inequality. Is there more chronic inflammation among people in poverty, among people with lower socioeconomic status, for example?
Speaker 1
Great call. Not just low socioeconomic status, but discrimination, inequality. This is very clear. We've seen a number of reports where, for example, in the U.S., African-American communities have a much higher level of systemic chronic inflammation that co-occasions do, for example, or Latinos. It's very clear how they're in the similar, say, socioeconomic status. Even then, because there is inequality given by ethnicity and other aspects of this, they are more exposed to systemic chronic inflammation. They're chronically stressed, and that increases the likelihood of developing the diseases that we mentioned, and that's how we explain the epidemiologic
[12:53] Detecting and Measuring Systemic Chronic Inflammation: A New Test on the Horizon
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (12:03 - 12:57)
✨ Key takeaways
- Around 80% of people over 40 in the U.S. have systemic chronic inflammation.
- Systemic chronic inflammation can be detected through blood tests.
- The Stanford 1000 Immunomes Project has identified tests to measure systemic chronic inflammation.
- A new test for measuring systemic chronic inflammation will likely be available in the marketplace in the next six months to a year.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 2
David, I want to get on to sort of what we might be able to do about this, but first of all, are there tests that can detect whether people have systemic chronic inflammation and whether it's at a problematic level? I presume we all have it to some extent.
Speaker 1
In the U.S., across the populations that we've studied, around 80% of people over 40 years old are inflamed. We can measure those responses by taking a blood sample and running that blood sample through a battery of tests that we identified using the Stanford 1000 Immunomes Project. So, can we measure systemic chronic inflammation? Yes, we can measure this and it's a relatively new test that will probably be in the marketplace in six months to a year from now.
[14:01] Options for addressing chronic inflammation in an industrialized world
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (12:57 - 14:06)
✨ Key takeaways
- Industrialization and urbanization contribute to chronic inflammation.
- There are three major aspects to address chronic inflammation: protection, challenge, and repair.
- Protection involves reducing exposure to harmful factors like pesticides and consuming organic food.
- Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish have anti-inflammatory effects.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 2
David, a lot of the sort of driving forces for this chronic inflammation that you've talked about really feel like they're products of industrialization, in a sense. And I wondered if, given that we're probably not going to reverse industrialization, urbanization, and what have you, what are the options out there? Are there treatments?
Speaker 1
There are really three major aspects. One is protecting ourselves from the exposure. The second is challenge ourselves. And the third one is repair. So, starting from protection, we have a long list of things I mentioned, maybe cutting on dairy products, on flour and other wheat-derived products, be protected from pesticides, try to eat as much organic food as possible. Fish is, in particular, rich for omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and these have anti-inflammatory effects.
[17:17] Challenge, Muscle Mass, and Intermittent Fasting: Keys to Healthy Aging and Lifespan Extension
🎧 Play snip - 2min️ (15:51 - 17:22)
✨ Key takeaways
- Challenge refers to interventions that challenge the body mentally and physically in order to maintain muscle mass and promote bone health as we age.
- Intermittent fasting is an example of a challenge that triggers an anti-inflammatory response and is associated with increased lifespan and healthspan in model organisms.
- The repair side of things does not include sleep.
- Mastering sleep hygiene is important due to the impact of electrical light, especially the blue spectrum, on the body's perception of starting the day.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 1
Challenge basically refers to a number of interventions that will challenge your body mentally and physically. So, as we get older, many doctors will tell you, you know, you should slow down because there's wear and tear. What we want is actually quite the opposite. You need muscle mass. Muscles are anti-inflammatory organs that produce more than 300 anti-inflammatory peptides. You want to have muscle mass as we grow old, as much as possible. And then also when you compress your bones by having walking every day or even like jogging, you will be creating more bone, and that's what we want as we get older. Intermittent fasting is the best example of challenge. You're challenging your body, triggering an evolutionary conserving response that is largely anti-inflammatory, and we have notable effects, including extension of lifespan and health span in model organisms.
Speaker 2
And the repair side of things, it's not involving things like sleep.
Speaker 1
That's a glad... Yes, I was going to say. So, mastering sleep hygiene, we know very clearly that the effect of electrical light, and in particular, the blue spectrum, will be interpreted by the body as we're starting the day, right?
[18:41] The Role of Sleep Hygiene and Meditation in Managing Chronic Inflammation
🎧 Play snip - 2min️ (17:05 - 18:41)
✨ Key takeaways
- Mastering sleep hygiene includes decreasing exposure to electrical light at night to prepare the body for sleep.
- Meditation prior to sleep can lower systemic chronic inflammation and improve sleep quality.
- Knowledge about preventing chronic inflammation is not yet fully embraced by doctors and health systems.
- There is typically a lag of 15 to 20 years from discovery in academia to public dissemination.
- The National Inflammaging Institute aims to disseminate knowledge about chronic inflammation.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 1
That's a glad... Yes, I was going to say. So, mastering sleep hygiene, we know very clearly that the effect of electrical light, and in particular, the blue spectrum, will be interpreted by the body as we're starting the day, right? And starting the day means there's a number of hormonal changes that go with it. Cortisol is the best example of it. So, decreasing electrical light exposure at night, we've seen in a number of papers that meditation lowers systemic chronic inflammation and prepares the body for a good quality sleep. So, maybe half an hour, 20 minutes of meditation prior to sleep, seems to be beneficial.
Speaker 2
David, it seems like there are actually quite a few things people can do, quite a few steps they can take to try and keep this kind of chronic inflammation in check. But it makes me wonder whether doctors and the health systems that they work in really embrace this. Is this sort of knowledge and advice embedded in medicine already? Not yet.
Speaker 1
And this is a really good point. They must catch up, right? There's typically about 15 to 20 years lag from discovery in the academic setting until it reaches the public. The other large effort that we have been now focusing on is the National Inflammaging Institute, which has that mission to disseminate this knowledge
[19:07] David, it seems like there are actually quite a few things people can do, quite a few steps they can take to try and keep this kind of chronic inflammation in check
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (17:52 - 19:13)
✨ Key takeaways
- There are steps people can take to keep chronic inflammation in check.
- Doctors and healthcare systems need to catch up with this knowledge.
- The National Inflammaging Institute aims to disseminate knowledge to the public and healthcare providers.
- There is typically a lag of 15 to 20 years before academic discoveries reach the public.
- Dr. David Furman emphasizes the importance of lowering systemic chronic inflammation.
- Guardian Jobs is a job platform for building rewarding careers.
📚 Transcript
Click to expand
Speaker 2
David, it seems like there are actually quite a few things people can do, quite a few steps they can take to try and keep this kind of chronic inflammation in check. But it makes me wonder whether doctors and the health systems that they work in really embrace this. Is this sort of knowledge and advice embedded in medicine already? Not yet.
Speaker 1
And this is a really good point. They must catch up, right? There's typically about 15 to 20 years lag from discovery in the academic setting until it reaches the public. The other large effort that we have been now focusing on is the National Inflammaging Institute, which has that mission to disseminate this knowledge and make it available to the masses, to the public, including obviously healthcare providers, and be able to lower systemic chronic inflammation in the population around the world, hopefully.
Speaker 2
David, it's great to have you on. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1
Thank you so much, Ian.
Speaker 2
Thank you for having me. Thanks again to Dr. David Furman. Before you go, you need to know about Guardian Jobs, our job platform that connects you with like-minded people to build rewarding careers.
Created with Snipd | Highlight & Take Notes from Podcasts
Captured: 2023-07-06T18:00:00+01:00