Silent inflammation may accelerate aging
Silent or chronic inflammation may have a direct or indirect effect on the process of aging, evidence suggests that chronic inflammation has a degenerative effect on the body and it may accelerate the process of aging. Inflammation can lead to illnesses such as diabetes, heart diseases, cancer and more, and that can shorten the life span of any individual suffering from these illnesses, but inflammation is also linked to loss of energy and concentration and that eventually causes pre-mature aging. We have always heard eating sugary foods makes you age faster, same goes with inflammation, sugars are big promoters of chronic inflammation in our bodies.
In healthy bodies, inflammation is a short term process, it goes away when the infection causing it goes away, but chronic inflammation is a long-term, and silent process of degenerative reactions in the body that can lead to plenty of serious illnesses. It won’t be a surprise if it also causes pre-mature aging, because stress is a promoter of inflammation in the body, and chronic stress leads to pre-mature aging. Inflammation and aging are again co-related, experts suggest that inflammation increases in the body with age, the rate of aging is although directed by our genes.
However, chronic inflammation can certainly accelerate this process of aging, people who live sedentary lifestyles and eat non-nutritive food tend to age faster. Research suggests that inflammation accelerated aging by releasing free radicals that are damaging to the cells of the body. These free radicals can affect the DNA in the cells, therefore it is important to eat diet rich in antioxidants to counter the effects of these free radicals in the body. It is noteworthy that silent inflammation increases with age, so it is important to switch to a healthy diet after you cross a certain landmark in age.
Chronic inflammation may cause breakdown of collagen, appearance of wrinkles, chronic inflammation has been directly linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and patients with Alzheimer’s disease have a high level of inflammatory cells and chemicals in their blood. All forms of sugars, processed foods, white pasta, bread, pretzels have inflammatory responses in our body, refined sugars increase the level of insulin in the blood, and put our immune system at a high alert. Eating diet rich in omega-6 fatty acids, such as sunflower, corn oil and soybean oil, are creating an unhealthy balance of fatty acids in the body. Our bodies turn these omega-6 fats into arachidonic acid which is very inflammatory, to counter it you must include omega-3 fats in your diet that come from salmon and other oily fish.
The healthy ratio of omega-6 fats to omega-3 is 3:1 or 5:1, but it is now 20:1 in most of the population, so you can see where we’re going. These essential fats make up the cell membranes, when the healthy ratio of these fats is disrupted it makes the cell membranes brittle and cells can no longer take up oxygen and nutrients, making them weaker and eventually dead. This can not only lead to pre-mature aging but many deadly diseases as mentioned before. Therefore, we can’t stress enough the importance of taking omega-3 fats. Tran’s fats also encourage the body to store fat, especially in the abdomen, these fat cells in the belly produce more inflammatory chemicals.
So, what should we eat to reduce this inflammation in the body, or counter inflammation as we age? Foods high in anti-inflammatory chemicals are wild-caught salmon, sardines, grass fed meat, organic eggs, avocadoes, coconuts, olive and coconut oil, flaxseeds, red grapes, broccoli, turmeric, ginger, cloves, and rosemary.
