Inflammation, a critical element of the body’s immune response, occurs when the body is exposed to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. As a person ages, their immune system becomes more pro-inflammatory, leading to unresolved or chronic inflammation and driving many age-related diseases and cognitive decline. Authors of a new report suggest that eating a pro-inflammatory diet may further contribute to the inflammatory state associated with aging, driving cognitive decline.
Diet plays key roles in immune function and inflammation, and robust evidence indicates that some components of diet promote inflammation, while others dampen or even resolve it. To score the inflammatory potential of dietary components, researchers have developed the Diet Inflammatory Index, a quantitative means of assessing the effects of diet on aspects of human health, ranging from inflammatory biomarkers in blood to the presence of chronic disease. The Index, which has been used in hundreds of studies and meta-analyses, is supported by diverse lines of evidence, including laboratory, observational, and interventional studies.
The authors recruited more than 1,000 older adults (average age, 73 years) who were enrolled in the Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet study. They collected detailed information about the types and quantities of the foods that participants regularly ate and assigned each participant’s diet a Diet Inflammation Index score. They tracked the participants for about three years and noted whether they were diagnosed with dementia.
They found that for every unit increase in the Diet Inflammation Index, the risk for developing dementia increased by 21 percent. As a result, participants whose diets had the highest inflammatory potential were three times more likely to develop dementia than those whose diets had the lowest inflammatory potential.
These findings suggest that dietary components modulate the inflammatory state associated with aging and drive the risk for developing dementia. Although these findings were based on observational data and do not assign causality, they highlight the roles that lifestyle changes may play in preserving cognitive function in aging. Learn more about how lifestyle changes can influence health and slow the effects of aging in this episode featuring Dr. Elisa Epel.
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