How to Reduce Inflammation and Slow Down Aging
Inflammaging may sound like trendy new health slang, but the truth is that this concept was introduced to us more than 20 years ago. It all started when researchers discovered that aging and a number of age-related diseases have something in common, inflammation.
The connection between inflammation and aging
Let’s understand inflammation in a bit more detail. Because it’s not all bad.
Acute inflammation is actually a protective response by your immune system when you’re injured. Think back to a time when you hurt yourself or were ill. You may have experienced redness, heat, swelling, pain, and perhaps even loss of function. These are all signs of acute inflammation and are a result of your immune system working properly.
Immune cells release inflammatory markers which have a number of functions all geared to helping your body destroy invading microbes, protect itself from further injury, cart away dead cells, and repair damaged ones. This type of inflammation is typically self-limiting and clears up when the infection or injury is under control and your body reverts to a state of balance.
Chronic inflammation is another story. Essentially the process is the same but instead of being self-limiting, the inflammatory response gets stuck in the ‘on’ position. Instead of focussing on damaged cells, your immune cells mistakenly attack healthy ones. As a by-product of this attack, free radicals are formed.
Free radicals are unstable molecules that have one or more electrons missing. Let’s think back to chemistry class: electrons like to be in pairs, so when they are all alone the unstable molecule will ‘steal’ electrons from other stable molecules thus damaging healthy tissue. The immune cells arrive to process these damaged cells and in doing this create more free radicals and the self-perpetuating cycle continues. In sum: it’s not a good situation.
What causes chronic inflammation
Chronic inflammation can have a number of triggers. It could be the lingering effects of an acute infection, an autoimmune disease, increased levels of belly fat, and even the hormonal shifts that occur with perimenopause and menopause.
From an aging perspective, emerging research shows that inflammation can also be caused by an imbalance between something called cellular garbage and disposal. Our cells continuously produce waste that must be cleared away or disposed of to maintain a healthy cell. As we get older, the disposal process slows down allowing this cellular garbage to accumulate and continuously trigger inflammation.
Conditions associated with chronic inflammation
Chronic, low-grade inflammation is what contributes to the development of age-related diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. If an increased risk of chronic disease wasn’t enough, it’s been found that inflammation also drives certain symptoms that are experienced during menopause like vaginal atrophy (including vaginal dryness and pain) as well as hot flashes and night sweats.
How your diet can help reduce inflammation
From a dietary and lifestyle perspective, it’s unclear if we can improve our cell's garbage disposal rates, but we can definitely counteract free radicals using antioxidants and encourage our bodies to lean towards anti-inflammatory pathways through deliberate food choices.
How antioxidants work
Antioxidants are known as electron donors, they meet with free radicals and stabilize them by donating an electron. This means that if we eat a diet rich in antioxidants, we can reduce the domino effect that damages healthy cells. Examples of antioxidants include vitamins (like vitamin C and E), minerals (like selenium), and phytonutrients (like carotenoids). Good food sources of vitamins and minerals rich in antioxidants include:
Vitamin C: Bell peppers, citrus, and strawberries
Vitamin E: Almonds, peanuts, and avocado
Selenium: Brazil nuts, seafood, and organ meats
Why you should eat more phytonutrients
Phytonutrients are a special group of nutrients found in plant-based foods that provide health benefits over and above the normal vitamin and mineral content. Carotenoids, which are responsible for the attractive color of various fruits and vegetables, are a particularly special type of phytonutrient because they act as powerful antioxidants, too. They are abundant in yellow-orange produce like carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins, and peppers, as well as in dark green leafy vegetables (although chlorophyll hides their naturally yellow-orange pigment).
Other foods that have anti-inflammatory properties
Certain nutrients like omega 3 as well as a variety of spices have been found to reduce inflammation through triggering specific anti-inflammatory pathways or inhibiting inflammatory pathways and regulating which genes are expressed in response to certain environmental triggers.
5 dietary habits to help reduce inflammation
Eat plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables every day: Fruit and veggies should literally be the star of your plate and at the bare minimum fill up at least half your plate at lunch and dinner. Add fruit at breakfast and one as a snack and you’re on your way to meeting your target for the day!
Opt for darker produce: The deeper the color of the fruit or vegetable you are eating, the more likely it is to be a concentrated source of phytonutrients.
Keep veggies varied: Although many of the phytonutrients belong to the same group (carotenoids), the specific nutrients found in each food work together to improve your health and fight inflammation and disease.
Aim for 2-3 servings of oily fish: The forms of omega 3 that your body can use (EPA and DHA) are found mainly in oily fish like anchovies, sardines, and salmon but can also be found in algae and krill oil supplements. If you can’t or won’t eat fish, try including an omega 3 supplement like fish oil or for the vegetarians, algae.
Keep it spicy: Cook with a variety of spices like black pepper, red pepper, cinnamon, clove, cumin, fenugreek, fennel, garlic, ginger, onion, rosemary and turmeric in your everyday cooking.
4 lifestyle changes that can reduce inflammation
Reduce stomach fat: for some women, the hormonal changes associated with aging can cause them to accumulate more fat around their abdominal area. When some of this fat deposits around the organs, it is called visceral fat and it appears to actively affect the immune system and elicit an inflammatory response which can increase your risk for various chronic diseases, like heart disease. To reduce this inflammatory load, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that your waist circumference should be below 88cm ( (34.6 inches). Targeting belly fat is not easy, but with a balanced diet, exercise, and the right support it is doable.
Limit your exposure to external sources of free radicals: If you can limit the number of free radicals that you are exposed to, you can limit some of the cell damage caused by them. External sources of free radicals come from exposure to cigarette smoke, air pollution, and ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Two of these exposures are something well within our control.
Quit smoking: If you smoke, take the right steps to reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke or consider quitting completely.
Don’t spend too much time in the sun: Especially without sunscreen. Some sun is necessary to get your daily fix of vitamin D but a little goes a long way. Spending 10-15 minutes each day is usually sufficient for most people but timing varies depending on a number of factors including your location and skin tone.
By preventing inflammation, can we slow the effects of aging?
The bottom line is that we are all going to get older, but we do have some control over how fast we age. Eating the right kinds of foods, reducing belly fat, and limiting your exposure to external free radicals will go a long way to slowing down the aging process. So yes, by reducing the amount of inflammation in your body you may be able to slow the effects of aging!
