- Inflammation is the mechanism by which the body responds to and fights infection.
- However, chronic, or long-term, inflammation is associated with many diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and dementia.
- Age, obesity, poor diet, and smoking increase the risk of chronic inflammation.
- A new study has added to growing evidence of a link between vitamin D deficiency and inflammation.
- The researchers suggest that, in older adults, vitamin D supplements may help reduce the risk of many inflammatory diseases.
Acute
Chronic inflammation, however, can last for months or even years. It can be caused by triggers
Inflammation is linked to lifestyle factors, including
It also increases with age, so much so that the process has been termed “
Now, a large-scale community study in Ireland has found that older adults with vitamin D deficiency have higher levels of inflammation markers than those with sufficient levels of the vitamin.
The authors suggest that vitamin D supplementation could decrease the risk of diseases linked to chronic inflammation.
The study is published in
Lead author Dr. Eamon Laird, visiting research fellow at Trinity College, Dublin, told Medical News Today: “We did anticipate seeing these findings as previous research has indicated strong associations of vitamin D with inflammation across different groups in the population.”
“However, our work is nearly one of the largest population-based studies yet to look at this. We were surprised…
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