What exactly is inflammaging, and why should you care?
By David G. Watumull, co-founder and chairman, Lokahi Longevity
“By managing inflammaging, we can make meaningful changes in our longevity trajectory. It’s a concept that changed my career—and I hope it will positively impact your life as well.”
If you follow recent trends in health and aging, you've probably encountered the term "inflammaging." Scientists define it as the chronic, low-level inflammation that increases the risk of chronic disease as we age. Like a stealth killer ninja, it quietly attacks our health and well-being, it can affect our ability to function as we age.
Let me explain how this discovery shaped my own path in longevity science—and why I believe it should shape yours, too.
My personal journey with inflammaging
My introduction to the field of longevity came by chance, decades ago, through an unexpected tennis-court friendship. I was working as a stockbroker at PaineWebber, deeply involved in financing groundbreaking biotech companies like Amgen and Genentech. During a tennis match, I met Dr. Jeff Nakamura, a physician-scientist and fellow Punahou School alumnus, who became both a client and a mentor.
One day after a match, Jeff asked if I'd like to learn more about biotech science. Before I could decline, he handed me an immunology textbook and said, "Test on Tuesday, first three chapters." I thought he was kidding. But, woefully, he was damn serious. From that moment, Jeff became my hard-driving scientific mentor, igniting a lifelong passion for understanding the science behind aging.
Jeff also introduced me to oxidative stress—a harmful state in which excessive amounts of unstable molecules called free radicals damage cells. Oxidative stress is closely linked to chronic inflammation, which I now know forms the foundation of what we call inflammaging.
The science behind inflammaging
Inflammation itself isn't always bad. It's an essential part of our immune system, arming our ability to fight infections, injuries, and toxins. Acute inflammation, like the redness and swelling around a small wound, typically resolves once the threat is eliminated.
Inflammaging, however, is different. It's subtle, persistent inflammation that quietly damages our cells and tissues over many years. It is not caused by small wound healing gone awry. It emerges when excessive oxidative stress in the mitochondria, driven by viruses, pollution, poor diet, obesity, insufficient exercise, stress, inadequate sleep, damaged endogenous anti-oxidant capacity, and even aging itself chronically activate inflammatory molecular pathways such as NF-kB. Multiple anti-inflammatory drugs target steps in the NF-kB pathway, including Humira, Cosentyx, Tremfya, aspirin, ibuprofen, Aleve, Celebrex and other NSAIDS, but have significant side effects that limit their chronic use.
Today, inflammaging is recognized as a fundamental mechanism impacting the chronic diseases of aging, and is strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, cognitive decline, and even certain cancers
Why inflammaging deserves your attention
Decades of research—and my own experiences working in biotech and longevity—have taught me that inflammaging isn't merely academic. Practical, actionable information equips you to slow your rate of aging. Understanding inflammaging gives us new tools to reduce disease risk and improve healthspan—the number of years we live in vibrant, active health.
At Lokahi Longevity, inflammaging is central to our approach. Through advanced diagnostics and targeted interventions, we provide personalized ways to measure, manage, and even reduce this chronic inflammation. Our therapy includes astaxanthin, an important inflammaging health supplement with exceptional safety, that I will cover in more detail in a later blog post.
Taking control of inflammaging
My mentor Jeff taught me that understanding the mechanisms of aging can empower us. Today, that empowerment is available to everyone through precise diagnostics, lifestyle adjustments, and scientifically validated therapies. Lokahi has a team of physicians and scientists with years of longevity medical experience, who provide expert guidance to ensure that you are at your best health.
In future posts in this series, I'll explore exactly how inflammaging affects specific health issues, how it can be identified using advanced diagnostics, what current research says about interventions to slow it down, and practical steps you can take right now to manage your own inflammaging profile.
Aging may be inevitable, but how we age isn't. By managing inflammaging, we can make meaningful changes in our longevity trajectory. It’s a concept that changed my career—and I hope it will positively impact your life as well.
➜ Click on the next article in this series, in which we'll dive deeper into how inflammaging connects to the diseases most closely associated with aging.
