07/01/2025
Reposting this piece from , which explores new research suggesting that chronic low-grade inflammation—often called “inflammaging”—may not be an inevitable part of getting older, but rather a reflection of how we live, eat, move, & connect. The study, based on an Indigenous population in the Bolivian Amazon, challenges assumptions that inflammation is simply a natural byproduct of aging.
From my integrative medicine lens, this isn’t new—it’s what many of us have been seeing in our clinical practices for decades. In fact, the MacArthur Study on Aging in the 1980s, found that inflammatory lab and physical markers were some of the most predictive factors for disease.
Inflammation is the body’s natural, ancient defense mechanism—but in our modern world, it’s gone rogue. What was once a protective internal “fireplace” has become, for many, a smoldering blaze that’s burning down the house.
This hidden, chronic inflammation—driven by stress, poor diet, sleep disruption, environmental toxins, & gut imbalances—is now recognized as the mother of root causes in conditions ranging from hormone imbalances to autoimmune disease, heart disease, dementia, & depression. And it starts long before a diagnosis—with signs we’ve normalized, like fatigue, brain fog, period pain, chronic pain, digestive issues, and trouble sleeping.
I talk extensively about this in The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution, Hormone Intelligence, in my course, The Women's Integrative Functional Medicine Training Program and in my podcast episode A Silent Fire: Understanding Hidden Inflammation w/ MD.
The most empowering truth is this: chronic inflammation is not inevitable, and it is reversible.
We can cool the internal fire. We can reclaim our vitality. And we don’t need perfection—we need small, sustainable shifts rooted in nourishment, movement, sleep, community, and yes, the deep wisdom of plant medicine.
This conversation is growing, and I’m so encouraged to see more mainstream attention to what we’ve known all along: when we heal the root, the whole body benefits.
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Original article via — highly worth the read if you're curious about the evolving understanding of inflammation and aging.
https://avivaromm.com/hidden-inflammation/
