Chronic inflammation is a low grade but heightened response that's ongoing from the immune system. Some of these proteins are associated with cellular senescence in tissues, which is a largely dysfunctional state of cells. It could be endothelial cells that will cause ultimately issues in the vascular system or some of these biomarkers cross the blood brain barrier and they go to the brain. They actually disrupt function in the brain and it can also cause cellular death. And so these are associated with Alzheimer's disease in those cases for example.
Ian Sample talks to Dr David Furman, an expert on inflammation and ageing at Stanford University. He explains how chronic inflammation is affecting our health and how lifestyle choices can help us fight it. This episode has been updated from an earlier version which stated that dairy is a cause of inflammation. Current scientific evidence suggests dairy has a negligible to marginally positive impact on inflammation in humans.. Help support our independent journalism at
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