Discover on Inflammation and Aging
The inflammaging model is starting to percolate into the popular science press, such as Discover: "In recent years, gerontologists have overturned much of the conventional wisdom about getting old. Aging is not the simple result of the passage of time. According to a provocative new view, it is actually something our own bodies create, a side effect of the essential inflammatory system that protects us against infectious disease. As we fight off invaders, we inflict massive collateral damage on ourselves, poisoning our own organs and breaking down our own tissues. We are our own worst enemy. This paradox is transforming the way we understand aging. It is also changing our understanding of what diseases are and where they come from. Inflammation seems to underlie not just senescence but all the chronic illnesses that often come along with it: diabetes, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's, heart attack. ... Inflammatory factors predict virtually all bad outcomes in humans. It predicts having heart attacks, having heart failure, becoming diabetic; predicts becoming fragile in old age; predicts cognitive function decline, even cancer to a certain extent." Strangely, the article fails to talk about the pivotal role of excess body fat in chronic inflammation.
Link: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/dec/can-we-cure-aging/article_print