Industrial Lifestyles, Not Age, Linked to Chronic Inflammation: Study

New Delhi: A recent study has found that inflammation—a key factor often linked to aging—may not actually be caused by aging itself. Instead, it could be more closely connected to modern, industrialized lifestyles.

The research, published in the journal Nature Aging, compared four populations: two from industrialized countries (Italy and Singapore) and two indigenous groups (the Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon and the Orang Asli of Malaysia).

The results showed a clear difference: in the industrialized populations, inflammation levels increased with age and were linked to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart conditions, and Alzheimer’s. In contrast, the indigenous groups showed high levels of inflammation caused by infections, but this inflammation did not increase with age—and, importantly, did not lead to chronic diseases.

“These results point to an evolutionary mismatch between our immune systems and the environments we now live in,” said lead author Alan Cohen, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. “Inflammaging may not be a direct product of aging but rather a response to industrialized conditions.”

The researchers analyzed 19 cytokines—proteins involved in immune and inflammatory responses—to track inflammation in the study groups. They found consistent patterns of age-related inflammation in the Italian and Singaporean populations, but no such pattern in the indigenous groups.

Cohen explained that in non-industrialized societies, inflammation was more likely to reflect the burden of infections rather than the effects of aging. “In industrialized settings, we see clear links between inflammaging and diseases like chronic kidney disease,” he said. “But in populations with high infection rates, inflammation appears more reflective of infectious disease burden than of aging itself.”

The study also noted that chronic diseases are rare or even absent among the indigenous populations. This means that even though younger individuals in these communities might show inflammatory profiles similar to those of older adults in industrialized societies, those profiles do not lead to disease.

“These findings really call into question the idea that inflammation is bad per se,” Cohen added. “Rather, it appears that inflammation—and perhaps other ageing mechanisms too—may be highly context dependent.”

The researchers believe that aging should be studied in a broader context, including lifestyle, culture, and environment. While the results challenge the idea of universal aging processes, they also open up possibilities for targeted, context-specific interventions.