Actor George Burns said that “you can’t stop getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” Considering he lived to be 100 and was active until just before his death, his words have more impact than most. The scientific pursuit of understanding aging is robust, and significant amounts of money are being spent on researching strategies to delay or reverse the damage aging creates. I have participated in studies where my entire genome has been sequenced as part of a growing database relating our DNA code to health. While you might not have had your entire genome sequenced, there are steps you can take now to minimize aging in your body. It is important to understand what inflammation is, how it relates to aging (sometimes called inflammaging), and how one food group, meat, promotes inflammaging.
Inflammation is a complex process in which cells and chemicals in our bodies fight infections and other threats, and it can be activated acutely or long-term. If a threat is detected by the immune system, chemicals like histamine are released that cause blood vessels to dilate, permitting white blood cells to arrive to clean up the area.
