A new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health challenges the long-held assumption that inflammation is a hallmark of aging, suggesting it may be a byproduct of industrialized lifestyles and vary significantly across global populations.
Researchers analyzed data from four populations: two industrialized groups (Italian InCHIANTI study and Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study) and two Indigenous groups (Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon and Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia). The findings indicate that “inflammaging” – chronic, low-grade inflammation associated with aging – is not a universal experience.
In industrialized settings, inflammation levels were linked to diseases like chronic kidney disease. However, in Indigenous populations, inflammation was largely driven by infection rather than age. This suggests that inflammation may be more reflective of infectious disease burden than of aging itself.
The study’s lead author notes that the findings call into question the idea that inflammation is inherently bad and suggest it may be highly context-dependent. The research implies that immune-aging processes are population-specific and influenced by exposome – a totality of environmental, lifestyle, and infectious exposures.
Key to understanding these differences is recognizing an evolutionary mismatch between our immune systems and modern environments. This highlights the need for more effective global health strategies that consider factors such as environment, lifestyle, and infection on how the immune system ages.
Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-aging-inflammation-universal-human-populations.html