Why Is Age a Factor in COVID-19? by Dr. Joseph Mercola for Mercola
For centuries, people have been searching for the Fountain of Youth. Many thought it was a real fountain where a person could bathe or drink to slow the aging process. While that fountain doesn’t exist, there are several strategies you may use to affect a change internally with external results.
Several factors affect aging, including chronic inflammation that leads to chronic disease. Although inflammation plays an essential role in repairing injury, chronic inflammation may result in health conditions like bowel diseases, arthritis, diabetes and heart disease.1
Although many times you won’t notice early visible signs of chronic inflammation, there is mounting evidence that it is an underlying factor in chronic disease.2 There is also evidence that natural remedies are effective in reducing inflammation and thus reducing the potential for chronic disease.3
Now is your chance to support Gospel News Network.
We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Underlying or baseline inflammation can exacerbate the aging process and raise the risk of severe infectious disease, as has been demonstrated by the numbers of people 65 and older who have died from COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 8 of every 10 deaths from COVID-19 are people age 65 and older.4
Inflammaging Associated With Frailty and Increased Death
Inflammaging is the “chronic low-grade inflammation occurring in the absence of overt infection.”5 This type of damaging inflammation negatively impacts immunity. Researchers hope that by preventing baseline inflammation, they can improve the immune response.
This is a significant pathway to help reduce the severity of disease in older individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2.6 This novel coronavirus brings about a serious condition in the elderly, increasing morbidity and mortality.
Severe disease often presents with excessive inflammation in the pulmonary system, especially in older individuals with high baseline C-reactive protein, indicating a heightened inflammatory response. Data show that inflammation biomarkers like this are relatively accurate predictors of mortality in the elderly, increasing their susceptibility to all sorts of maladies.7
In a paper published in Science Mag, the authors discuss some of the cellular and systemic challenges faced by older adults in their fight against infectious diseases, including COVID-19.8
They hypothesize that a low-grade inflammatory response may be the result of several mechanisms, including a compromised gut microbiome and obesity. As the body ages, it also slowly loses the ability to clear dead and dying cells, which subsequently increases inflammatory activity.
These senescent cells are no longer able to divide, and they accumulate throughout the body. However, they are not “silent” but rather can secrete inflammatory cytokines and other inflammatory molecules that can trigger inflammation and dysfunction.
Reducing Baseline Inflammation May Lower Disease Severity
If you have a baseline inflammatory response, the flu vaccine may not be as effective for you as expected.9 Researchers have improved the body’s response to an antigen by administering an inhibitor,10 which suggests that baseline inflammation has a significant effect on the immune system.
The authors also theorize this may be relevant to older individuals with severe respiratory tract disease. As we age, the number of senescent cells and the level of baseline inflammation rises. Another way to improve immunity and reduce inflammation, then, may be to eliminate them.
This has prompted the development of senolytic therapies to do just that. The relationship between baseline inflammation and severe disease in older individuals with COVID-19 has not yet been defined, but one hypothesis is that the senescent cells and pre-existing inflammatory cells amplify the effects of COVID-19 in the respiratory tract.
Another theory is that the baseline inflammation in the body is not damaging on its own, but it may start a cellular cascade, which heightens inflammation with an infection. In addition to this, senescent cells can bring about more inflammation. Their buildup in the pulmonary tract may contribute to an increase in severe disease.
While the authors of the perspective published in Science Mag promote vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, they also point out that any effective treatment for the elderly may require a combination of antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments.
