Nutrition, Aging and Inflammation – A Tightly Intertwined Interplay – Healing Practice

How inflammation, aging and diet are linked

inflammation apply not only as biological characteristics for the agingbut also as risk factor for diseases how Alzheimer and Cancer. A German research team has now succeeded for the first time in describing the development process of such inflammations at the molecular level. It also showed what influence the nutrition has in this process.

A working group around professor dr Francesco Neri and dr Mahdi Rasa from the Leibniz Institute for Research on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) was able to describe an important regulatory network in the body at the molecular level. This network is influenced by diet and fuels the general, cross-organ inflammatory response. The results were recently published in the renowned journal “Cell Reports” presented.

Diet influences age-related inflammation

the Diet influences wide-ranging inflammatory responses throughout the body. This is one of the results that can be derived from the current study results. A targeted and, above all, calorie-reduced diet could be used to specifically dampen inflammatory reactions and thus slow down the effects of aging and the risk of numerous diseases such as Cancer to reduce.

What is inflammation?

As the scientists involved explain, inflammation is one Immune reaction of the body. In itself, this process is useful and intended to pathogens or damaged cells to be removed from the tissue. Once this task is completed, the inflammation usually subsides again.

When is inflammation considered chronic?

However, things are different chronic inflammation, which are age-related, among other things. According to the researchers, such immune reactions are not locally limited to an injury or an organ, but can entire body affect.

It drives innate immune system its activity high, resulting in a low-threshold long-term inflammation. This process is called in medicine inflammatory aging or as inflamm aging designated. Such chronic inflammation can have a massive impact on health and contribute to the development of diseases.

Why chronic inflammation affects disease risk

“If immune cells are constantly activated, it can lead to their exhaustion, which causes problems in case of infection because the immune response may not be sufficient”, comments Professor Dr. Francesco Neri, former research leader of the working group “Epigenetics of Aging” at the FLI.

“Age-related inflammation also plays a role in the development of cancer”the professor continues. “In the inflamed tissue, increased cell proliferation can be observed.”

Reduced calorie intake prolongs life

Using mice, the working group was able to understand for the first time how age-related inflammation by certain genes regulated and maintained.

It was already known from previous studies on flies, worms and monkeys that animals live longer when they tend to be lifelong too few calories record as too much.

This was confirmed again in the current study: mice that 30 percent less feed than a control group were fitter overall, more active, and lived three to four months longer, which is one Life extension of 10 to 15 percent is equivalent to.

One health improvement by a reduced calorie intake has also been observed in humans. So far, however, it was unclear on which molecular mechanisms this connection is based.

Systemic inflammatory network described for the first time

As part of the current study, the working group first compared young mice aged four months with older mice aged 22 months. In doing so, the activity of genes measured in the organs as well as in many different tissues including blood, brain, heart, kidney, liver, lung, muscle and skin.

“It was our priority to study exactly those signaling pathways that are involved in the inflammatory response in all tissues”reports Professor Neri. “We wanted to understand inflammatory aging on a systemic level.”

“We found that the inflammatory state in aged mice is characterized by upregulation of genes encoding innate immune system receptors.”explains the lead scientist.

According to him, this upregulation in turn leads to the activation of a number of genes that interferon production regulate. This in turn becomes pro-inflammatory cytokines produced.

“In addition, they activate Stat1, a kind of master switch for the regulation of genes that are associated with inflammatory processes – so you can speak of a positive feedback that maintains the inflammatory state.”sums up Professor Neri.

According to their own statements, the research group from Jena is the first in the world to do this systemic regulatory network describes.

Calorie intake influences age-related gene expression

Based on gene expression of the mice, the researchers were able to demonstrate that a long-term reduced calorie intake a positive effect almost all organs out of heart. Even in animals that were only put on a diet for two months, a positive effect on the genes associated with aging was seen.

Dietary supplement to improve the intestinal flora

The research work opens up many new approaches to influencing the processes described. On the one hand, attempts could be made to specifically downregulate certain genes, for example with an active substance.

Another approach would be that intestinal flora With dietary supplements such as vitamins or probiotics to strengthen so targeted microorganisms in the gut promote that fight systemic inflammation.

“The calorie-restricted diet appears to alter the microbiome, which dampens the inflammatory response”Professor Neri points out.

“If dietary supplements also affect the microorganisms, then we could possibly achieve the same positive effects without a calorie-restricted diet”, concludes the scientist. However, he emphasizes that this is still speculation at this point. (vb)