Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomeEpidemiologyCurb chronic inflammation to reduce risk of chronic disease mortality

Curb chronic inflammation to reduce risk of chronic disease mortality

The group of international experts, which also includes scientists from the National Institutes of Health, Stanford University, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University Medical Centre and University College London, point to inflammation-related diseases as the cause of 50% of all deaths worldwide. Inflammation is a naturally occurring response by the body's immune system that helps fight illness and infection. When inflammation is chronic, however, it increases the risk of developing potentially deadly diseases.

In a perspective article, the authors describe how persistent and severe inflammation in the body plays a key role in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.

Future research should focus on identifying ways to better diagnose and treat severe chronic inflammation, according to the authors. Doing so may not only extend life, but also help reduce chronic disease worldwide and improve health, they said.

Senior author George Slavich, director of the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research, said it is important to make people aware of the risk factors for chronic inflammation, which include obesity, physical inactivity, social isolation, chronic stress and inadequate or poor sleep.

"Chronic inflammation is influenced by many social, environmental and lifestyle factors," said Slavich, who is also a research scientist at the Norman Cousins Centre for Psycho-neuroimmunology at UCLA. "If we make people aware of these risk factors, our hope is that individuals will reduce the factors that apply to them."

Slavich said research should focus on identifying new biomarkers or substances in the body that will enable doctors to screen for and better diagnose and treat severe chronic inflammation. Currently, just a few biomarkers are known to indicate inflammation, such as elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a protein found in blood plasma. Slavich said there are potentially hundreds of other substances in the body's immune system that may indicate chronic inflammation, but they have yet to be identified.

"It's also important to recognise that inflammation is a contributor not just to physical health problems, but also mental health problems such as anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, self-harm and suicide," Slavich said. "This is a substantial public health crisis."

Abstract
Although intermittent increases in inflammation are critical for survival during physical injury and infection, recent research has revealed that certain social, environmental and lifestyle factors can promote systemic chronic inflammation (SCI) that can, in turn, lead to several diseases that collectively represent the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. In the present Perspective we describe the multi-level mechanisms underlying SCI and several risk factors that promote this health-damaging phenotype, including infections, physical inactivity, poor diet, environmental and industrial toxicants and psychological stress. Furthermore, we suggest potential strategies for advancing the early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of SCI.

Authors
David Furman, Judith Campisi, Eric Verdin, Pedro Carrera-Bastos, Sasha Targ, Claudio Franceschi, Luigi Ferrucci, Derek W Gilroy, Alessio Fasano, Gary W Miller, Andrew H Miller, Alberto Mantovani, Cornelia M Weyand, Nir Barzilai, Jorg J Goronzy, Thomas A Rando, Rita B Effros, Alejandro Lucia, Nicole Kleinstreuer, George M Slavic

[link url="https://www.uclahealth.org/taming-chronic-inflammation-may-reduce-illness-save-lives"]University of California – Los Angeles Health Science material[/link]

[link url="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0675-0"]Nature Medicine Perspective[/link]

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