In a new paper, researchers recommend the early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of severe chronic inflammation to reduce the risk of chronic disease and death worldwide.
They point to inflammation-related diseases as the cause of 50 percent of all deaths worldwide.
The paper was written by scientists from 22 institutions, including UCLA, the National Institutes of Health, Stanford University, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University Medical Center, and University College London.
Inflammation is a naturally occurring response by the body’s immune system that helps fight illness and infection.
When inflammation is chronic, however, it increases the risk of developing potentially deadly diseases.
In the article, the authors describe how persistent and severe inflammation in the body plays a key role in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.
Future research should focus on identifying ways to better diagnose and treat severe chronic inflammation, according to the authors.
Doing so may not only extend life but also help reduce chronic disease worldwide and improve health.
The team says it is important to make people aware of the risk factors for chronic inflammation, which include obesity, physical inactivity, social isolation, chronic stress, and inadequate or poor sleep.
Research should focus on identifying new biomarkers or substances in the body that will enable doctors to screen for and better diagnose and treat severe chronic inflammation.
Currently, just a few biomarkers are known to indicate inflammation, such as elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a protein found in blood plasma.
There are potentially hundreds of other substances in the body’s immune system that may indicate chronic inflammation, but they have yet to be identified.
One author of the paper is George Slavich, director of the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research.
The paper is published in the journal Nature Medicine.
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