Does an Inflammatory Diet Promote Aging?

TLDR:

• This study is a systematic review that investigates the relationship between the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), which measures the inflammatory potential of a person's diet, and telomere length, a marker of biological aging.

• The review analyzed data from nine previously published studies and found that only four of them suggested a link between a more pro-inflammatory diet (a higher DII score) and shorter telomeres.

• The researchers concluded that there is currently insufficient evidence to establish a definitive connection between a pro-inflammatory diet and shorter telomere length, and they have called for further research to explore this potential association.

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Transcript:

Dr. Wells here with my research assistant, Coco. Hi, Coco. I'm sitting by the fireplace because today we're going to talk about Inflammatory diets. Yeah, I know it's a kind of a catch-all term that we hear a lot within the nutrition and holistic world But there is some evidence to show that diets can promote inflammation. We talked a little bit about this Actually, we have an entire section on inflammatory states in our board-approved continuing education courses But this study that I have today for our research update is by Castro et al and it's published in Biogerontology and it's a systematic review. So they went out and looked up a bunch of studies that focused on Does an inflammatory diet actually affect aging? So in a way there's been some suggested sort of evidence that Diets can impact our telomere length, which is kind of an indirect measurement of Aging if you recall telomeres help to pull apart the DNA, right? during the transition from Anaphase from mesophase to anaphase during cell division, right? And so as those shrink you get more more likelihood of mutations and genetic disruptions, so That being said they wanted to see what does the research show they found nine good studies They were looking at obviously trying to find robust studies not case studies. So They found seven crossover studies or excuse me across Seven crossover studies two longitudinal studies and what they found were a variety of metrics one was that Several studies you use food frequency questionnaires, which is very common and within the research sort of studies While some use 24-hour recall we talked about this in our courses like what's the difference? What's the pros? What's the cons? but long story short they found of those nine studies four of them saw a link with Pro inflammatory diets using the diet inflammatory index, which is kind of like the alternative healthy index in a way but it's basically scores food on how pro inflammatory it is and That can be due to multiple factors whether it has high amounts of saturated fat Whether it has high amounts of salts whether it's ultra processed whether Overall like dietary patterns show that it can be pro inflammatory either on C reactive proteins or other metrics so In essence the systematic review shows there is some link with a pro inflammatory diet with shortening telomeres However, there's in four of the nine studies also the studies are using different methods, right? The one's using food frequency questionnaire. The other one's using 24-hour recall and so as a it's a major issue when you look at the overall ability to extrapolate this so My opinion is that this is just the beginning and what we need to see is more robust longitudinal studies looking at using consistent methods of measuring Inflammatory diets as well as telomere length and that is another issue too is that there is variability with measuring Telomere lanes and there's some issues with probably how one study measured it versus another so what we need to see is more More consistency across both of those measures before we come to a conclusion Regardless about half the study showed that there's a link. I think I see a link with individuals and their dietary patterns With aging but I would say maybe I see it more strongly with chronic diseases So I can more definitively tell my patients listen, you're not gonna live Hundreds of years longer eating a anti-inflammatory diet However, I will say that you will be less likely to develop things like diabetes inflammatory tendinopathies Osteoarthritis that's actually system Symptomatic. So any I hope you like this. My friend Coco is now left me She's finding something more interesting because I'm probably talking too much. Anyhow, thanks for tuning in check out more on our website at www.nutritionalphysicaltherapy.com we've got some great courses and Information for physical therapists and rehab professionals.