Inflammaging – A Problem in Today's Society

Recently, as part of my studies, I attended a seminar called Inflammaging – Inflammation and Disease, given by Stephen Eddy the principal of Health Schools Australia. No, this isn’t a typo, I promise, and I’ll explain why. This seminar really hit home to me how we really need to look after ourselves better and how we live has far reaching effects on our lives and health. I want to bring this information to you so you can decide for yourself if this something that you could use in your life also.

But first, what is inflammation? Inflammation is your body’s protective response to any damaging agent, allergen or other irritant. The goal of inflammation is to neutralize the irritant, remove damaged tissue and rebuild the area. Chronic inflammation occurs when this response is not turned off, continuing to stimulate immune cells when they may not be needed which then damage healthy tissues.

So now you’re wondering what’s this inflammaging? Chronic inflammation has recently been discovered to be the driving force behind age related diseases. For this reason it has been called inflammaging. Some of the diseases now considered to be caused by inflammaging are depression, cardiovascular disease, brain disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), obesity, insulin resistance – diabetes, asthma, allergies, eczema, lupus, multiple sclerosis, forms of arthritis, cancer, crohn’s disease but there are many more.

Our lifestyles, especially in the western world, have allowed us to become more inflammatory. Many diseases which are increasing at a rapid rate have a direct correlation to the increasing inflammatory lifestyle. For example, an average of one in three adults suffers from arthritis. This has doubled from figures from 20 years ago. A figure which has also doubled is people who suffer from allergies compared to 20 years ago. In the last decade, the numbers of diabetes cases have increased by 50%.

Ok, so now you have a bit of background information for the next few articles I will be posting. This is a topic I feel really passionate about. I am bringing the principles I will write about into my own life and the lives of my family members. As well as giving you information on this topic, I will also give you my personal experience and results for aiming for an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for my next article which will be about the causes of inflammaging.

By: Kelly Horne