Most replayed moment: Easy Steps to Reduce Inflammation and Slow Ageing | Professor Janet Lord

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Hello, and welcome to ZOE Recap, where each week, we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health. Here's an important term you may not have heard before, Inflammaaging. It describes the link between chronic inflammation in the body and accelerated aging. While it's relatively unknown, this process is one of the most important concepts to understand if we want to live longer, healthier lives. I'm joined by Professor Janet Lord to break down what inflammation is, why it's one of the biggest threats to healthy longevity and the surprisingly simple science-backed habits we can all use to slow it down.
Inflammaging, what is that?

**Janet Lord** (0:49)
Basically, it's an increase in inflammation in the body as you get older. So with age, so it's the two things combined. And most people would think that inflammation, if they've heard of it, they assume it's something that happens when they cut their hand, or if they've got a chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis, oh, I've got inflammation. But with aging, it's broader than that. So it's a low level, sort of grumbling level of inflammation that goes on for years. So if I measure inflammation in your blood, it's not like that level that you would see in an infection, or if you've got a chronic inflammatory disease like rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease. It's much lower than that, but you've got it for years and years grumbling away there.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:39)
And that affects how I age?

**Janet Lord** (1:41)
It does indeed. We didn't know for many years really what caused aging, but now we're really beginning to understand the processes in the body that drive aging, that cause us to become more prone to diseases like dementia, like cardiovascular disease, like even cancer.
And it turns out that inflammation is one of those key processes.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:06)
So inflammation is one of these words that I feel we hear a lot, but I'm probably not the only person who still struggles really to understand what's going on. And I was just thinking about what you just described to me, because I managed to smash up my finger yesterday one way or another, and it's really sore this morning.
In my mind, that somehow my finger is inflamed. Is that correct?

**Janet Lord** (2:29)
That's correct. No, that's correct.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:30)
So what's going on there? And how is that the same or different from this like low, long level inflammation you're talking about?

**Janet Lord** (2:37)
So like everything else in the body, inflammation isn't always bad. It's there for a reason. We've evolved to have inflammation. And so its primary focus is to repair damage in the body. So if you cut yourself, you have inflammation and it stimulates repair processes.
Its other key function is in combating infections.
So inflammation really stimulates your immune system, directs it in the correct way. So is your infection a bacteria or is it a virus? And depending on which it is, you know, the immune system will then be educated to behave in a particular way. And inflammation is important to that. But that's all acute inflammation. It's rapid. It goes away when the problem is resolved. So when your cut has healed itself, when the infection has been cleared, it subsides. This inflammation is there at a very low level and it's there for years and years. So if you don't turn that inflammation off, then unfortunately it can be damaging. So for example, too much inflammation will actually suppress your immune system.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:47)
What are the signs of aging that can be affected by this inflammation and the way the immune system is not working as well?

**Janet Lord** (3:55)
So I'm going to give you two examples. So one thing, as I've said, the inflammation can actually suppress your immune systems. So you're more susceptible to infections. And when you actually get an infection, it takes you longer to clear it. So again, most of your viewers will know if you're a 20 or 30 year old and you get flu, you have a week or two in bed, you have a few duvet days, but then you're fine.
But if you're 70, 80 years old and you get the flu, there's a good chance you could end up in hospital and even die as a result, because you get secondary infections like pneumonia as well. So that's one thing, that's one very visible thing that most of your viewers will know that the older you are, you're in a high risk category.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:40)
Coming back to my thinking, isn't that just what it means to be older? You're looking at me as like, no, definitely not Jonathan.