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Inflammation

The silent inflammation

An inflammation you cannot feel, and one that still matters

Everyone knows inflammation as redness, swelling and pain. There is a second kind that you do not notice, and it works over decades.

What this is about

In 2000, the Italian researcher Claudio Franceschi described a pattern that has been part of ageing research ever since: over the years, a kind of inflammation builds up in the body that stays weak, never fades and does not belong to any infection. He called it inflammaging, a made-up word combining inflammation and ageing.

You do not notice it. It only shows up in the lab, in certain blood values.

There is good evidence that it matters

In people aged 100, a raised inflammation value predicts mortality. C-reactive protein, or CRP for short, is an accepted early warning sign of heart and circulation events. A follow-up study in Hawaii that ran for more than 25 years found a link with later dementia. Other studies found a link with the loss of muscle mass and strength.

From side effect to cause

At first, all of this only shows that the two occur together. The decisive step came in 2017 with a large study called CANTOS. A treatment aimed directly at the inflammation reduced heart and circulation events, without changing blood fats. This showed that this pathway can be influenced on its own.

Which plant substances are being studied

The most widely studied is curcumin, the yellow pigment of the turmeric root. Summaries of several controlled studies describe lower inflammation values.

Putting this into context is not easy, though, because curcumin has a well-known problem: the body absorbs it poorly and breaks it down quickly. Studies on combining it with piperine, the hot component of black pepper, describe much higher levels in the blood.

Boswellic acids from the resin of Indian frankincense act at a different point than curcumin. Studies comparing them with a dummy treatment exist mainly for knee osteoarthritis.

A link to the last topic

A large share of the inflammatory substances that circulate in the blood in old age comes from cells that have stopped working. That is what the last topic in this series is about.

Sources

  1. Franceschi 2000 — Ann N Y Acad Sci — first description of the concept PMID 10911963
  2. Franceschi & Campisi 2014 — J Gerontol A PMID 24833586
  3. Ferrucci & Fabbri 2018 — Nat Rev Cardiol PMID 30065258
  4. Bruunsgaard 2003 — TNF-α and mortality in centenarians PMID 12967692
  5. Ridker 2000 — NEJM — CRP as a predictor PMID 10733371
  6. Ridker 2017 — NEJM — CANTOS PMID 28845751
  7. Sahebkar 2014 — meta-analysis, curcuminoids and CRP PMID 23922235
  8. Hewlings & Kalman 2017 — Foods — review PMID 29065496
  9. Anand 2007 — Mol Pharm — bioavailability of curcumin PMID 17999464
  10. Shoba 1998 — Planta Med — piperine and pharmacokinetics PMID 9619120
  11. Ammon 2006 — Planta Med — boswellic acids PMID 17024588
  12. Sengupta 2008 — Arthritis Res Ther — randomised, placebo-controlled
  13. Schaap 2006 — inflammation markers and muscle mass PMID 16750969
  14. Schmidt 2002 — Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, 25 years PMID 12210786
  15. Coppé 2010 — Annu Rev Pathol — SASP PMID 20078217

Note. These pages reflect the current state of published research. They describe biological processes and studies on substances. They make no statement about products and do not replace medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.