Most replayed moment: Easy Steps to Reduce Inflammation and Slow Ageing | Professor Janet Lord

Summary

ZOE Science & Nutrition – “Easy Steps to Reduce Inflammation and Slow Ageing”
Guest: Professor Janet Lord
Host: Jonathan Wolf (ZOE)
Release Date: June 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the concept of “inflammaging”—the chronic, low-grade inflammation that accumulates as we age and accelerates the aging process. Host Jonathan Wolf is joined by Professor Janet Lord, who explains what inflammaging is, how it impacts longevity and health, and the practical, evidence-based steps everyone can take to combat it. The discussion highlights how modern science is decoding aging and provides actionable advice—especially regarding exercise—to help listeners lead longer, healthier lives.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Is Inflammaging? (00:01–04:00)

• Definition: Inflammaging refers to the persistent, low-level inflammation in the body as we grow older.
  • “It’s an increase in inflammation in the body as you get older. So with age. So it’s the two things combined… It’s a low level, sort of grumbling level of inflammation that goes on for years.” – Prof. Janet Lord [00:49]
• Difference from Acute Inflammation:
  • Acute inflammation responds to immediate injury or infection and resolves after healing.
  • Inflammaging is not as high as with infection/injury but persists for years.
  • Chronic low-level inflammation can suppress the immune system and accelerate aging.

2. The Impact of Inflammaging on Aging (03:47–06:37)

• Visible Signs:
  • Increased infection susceptibility, longer recovery times.
    • “If you’re 70, 80 years old… get the flu, there’s a good chance you could end up in hospital and even die as a result.” – Prof. Lord [03:55]
  • Loss of muscle mass and strength (sarcopenia), leading to frailty.
• Mechanisms:
  • Inflammation suppresses growth factors for muscle.
  • Promotes production of stress hormones (like cortisol), which break down muscle tissue.
    • “So it’s suppressing the growth of new muscle and it’s accelerating the breakdown of existing muscle… it drives this cortisol production.” – Prof. Lord [06:05]

3. Exercise – The Most Potent Antidote (06:37–10:36)

• Why Exercise Works:
  • Physical activity reduces harmful fat (a source of inflammation).
  • Strengthens muscles, making the body less frail.
  • Muscle’s Unexpected Role: Muscles themselves release anti-inflammatory cytokines when moved, actively dampening inflammation.
    • “Moving muscle produces cytokines that dampen the inflammation down. Particularly they educate immune cells to be anti inflammatory.” – Prof. Lord [07:45]
• Sedentary Lifestyle Risks:
  • Sitting for long periods can “undo” exercise benefits for inflammation.
  • Recommendation: Break up sitting each hour by moving around for even 10 minutes.
    • “If you’re sitting…every hour get up and move around, even if it’s just for 10 minutes.” – Prof. Lord [09:16]

4. Exercise Types: Aerobic vs. Resistance (10:36–12:07)

• Aerobic Exercise: (e.g., fast walking, stairs, jogging)
  • Most effective for reducing overall inflammation.
  • Strengthens heart, lungs, and general muscle function.
• Resistance Exercise: (e.g., weight training, band work, stair climbing)
  • Builds and maintains muscle mass and strength.
  • Prof. Lord’s advice: “Just go up and down stairs… it’s aerobic and it’s resistance.” [11:18]
  • Warning: Avoid environments that discourage movement (e.g., single-floor homes for elderly).

5. Counterintuitive Advice for Elderly Loved Ones (11:45–12:42)

• Encouraging Activity: Don’t shield older adults from physical effort like carrying groceries or climbing stairs.
  • “If you really love them…make your parents carry the shopping upstairs. Is that really true?” – Jonathan Wolf [11:45]
  • “Yeah, absolutely true, yes… She wasn’t pleased about it, but I think she enjoyed it.” – Prof. Lord [12:07]
• Practical Tip: Aim for daily stair-climbing or similar activities to preserve health and independence.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the difference between acute inflammation and inflammaging:
  “Inflammation isn’t always bad…it’s there for a reason. We’ve evolved to have inflammation, and so its primary focus is to repair damage in the body… This inflammaging is there at a very low level and it’s there for years and years.” – Prof. Janet Lord [02:36]

• On muscle as an anti-inflammatory organ:
  “Turns out that your muscle is a major regulator of your immune system. It can make it less inflammatory, basically.” – Prof. Janet Lord [09:35]

• On “bungalow legs” and the importance of stairs:
  “Worst thing you can do as an older adult is to go and get a bungalow… you’ll end up with bungalow legs. So legs with less muscle and less strength.” – Prof. Janet Lord [11:40]

• On challenging the conventional wisdom about aging and exertion:
  “If you really love them… make your parents carry the shopping upstairs… Yes, absolutely true.” – Janet Lord [12:07]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01–00:49: Introduction to inflammaging
• 00:49–02:06: How inflammation differs in aging versus injury
• 03:47–06:21: Health impacts of chronic inflammation (infection risk, muscle loss)
• 06:37–10:36: How exercise reduces inflammation; role of muscle and sedentary behavior
• 10:36–12:07: Aerobic vs. resistance exercise; practical advice for older adults
• 12:07–12:42: Why older people should keep moving and practical family advice

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Practical Takeaways

• Chronic low-level inflammation (inflammaging) is a driver of aging and age-related diseases.
• Exercise—both aerobic and resistance—is critical not just for heart and muscle, but for controlling inflammation and preserving the immune system.
• Break up long periods of sitting; muscle activity actively dials down inflammation.
• Encourage movement in older adults—stair climbing and carrying groceries matter.
• Small, consistent actions now add up to better health and more years lived with vitality.

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This episode takes complex science and provides clear, relatable explanations and practical action steps, making it essential listening for anyone interested in healthy aging.

Transcript

[A]

Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health. Here's an important term you may not have heard before. Inflammaging. It describes the link between chronic inflammation in the body and accelerated aging. While it's relatively unknown, this process is one of the most important concepts to understand if, if we want to live longer, healthier lives. I'm joined by Professor Janet Lord to break down what inflammaging is, why it's one of the biggest threats to healthy longevity and the surprisingly simple science backed habits we can all use to slow it down.

[B]

Inflammaging, what is that?

[C]

Basically, it's an increase in inflammation in the body as you get older. So with age. So it's the two things combined. And most people would think that inflammation, if they've heard of it, they assume it's something that happens when they cut their hand or if they've got a chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis. Oh, I've got inflammation, but with aging it's broader than that. So it's a low level, sort of grumbling level of inflammation that goes on for years. So if I measure inflammation in your blood, it's not like that level that you would see in an infection or if you've got a chronic inflammatory disease like rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, it's much lower than that. But you've got it for years and years grumbling away there.

[B]

And that affects how I age.

[C]

It does indeed. We didn't know for many years really what caused aging, but now we're really beginning to understand the processes in the body that drive aging, that cause us to become more prone to diseases like dementia, like cardiovascular disease, like even cancer. And it turns out that inflammation is one of those key processes.

[B]

So inflammation is one of these words that I feel we hear a lot. But I'm probably not the only person who still struggles really to understand what's going on. And I was just thinking about what you just described to me because I managed to smash up my finger yesterday one way or another, and it's really sore this morning in my mind that somehow my finger is inflamed. Is that correct or.

[C]

That's correct. No, that's correct. So what's going on there?

[B]

And how is that the same or different from this, like low, long level inflammation?

[C]

Exactly. So. So like everything else in the body, inflammation isn't always bad. It's there for a reason. We've evolved to have inflammation, and so its primary focus is to repair damage in the body. So if you cut yourself, you have inflammation and it stimulates repair process. Its other key function is in combating infections. So inflammation really stimulates your immune system, directs it in the correct way. So is your infection a bacteria or is it a virus? And depending on which it is, you know, the immune system will then be educated to behave in a particular way. And inflammation is important that. But that's all acute inflammation. It's rapid, it goes away when the problem is resolved. So when your cut has healed, when the infection has been cleared, it subsides. This inflammaging is there at a very low level and it's there for years and years. So if you don't turn that inflammation off, then unfortunately it can be damaging. So, for example, too much inflammation will actually suppress your immune system.

[B]

What are the signs of aging that can be affected by this inflammation? And the way the immune system is not working as well.

[C]

So I'm going to give you two examples. So one thing, as I've said, inflammation can actually suppress your immune systems, so you're more susceptible to infections. And when you actually get an infection, it takes you longer to clear it. So again, most of your viewers will know if you're a 20 or 30 year old and you get flu, you have a week or two in bed, you have a few duvet days, but then you're fine. But if you're 70, 80 years old and you get the flu, there's a good chance you could end up in hospital and even die as a result, because you get secondary infections like pneumonia as well. So that's one thing, that's one very visible thing that most of your viewers will know, that the older you are, you're in a high risk category.

[B]

Coming back to my thinking that isn't that just what it means to be older? You're looking at me as like, no, definitely not, Jonathan.

[C]

It is a marker of ageing, so it's something we recognise, but it's not inevitable.

[B]

And so you're saying that this is because the immune system has declined?

[A]

Has declined, yes, it's compromised because of

[B]

this ongoing level of inflammation.

[C]

Yes, it's certainly one of the key drivers. We think other things happen as well that can affect your immune system, but inflammation is looking like a major driver. Another aspect that again, your viewers will recognize and think about as an old person is walking more slowly, perhaps less struggling to get out of a chair, you know, groaning every time you get out of the chair. And that is because with age, our muscles, we have less muscle and it's less good quality muscles. It's called sarcopenia. So you lose muscle strength. And we know that inflammation is one of the drivers there. So this inflammation actually does lots of things to muscle. It slows down the production of molecules that you need to grow the muscle. They're called growth factors. So it suppresses that. It also causes the production in the muscle of hormones, stress hormones, and again, some of your viewers may have heard of one called cortisol. And cortisol breaks muscle down, so it's suppressing the growth of new muscle and it's accelerating the breakdown of existing muscle. So again, inflammation, we know, drives this cortisol production and suppresses these growth factors. It's one of the factors that's causing this frailty.

[B]

Janet, that's amazing. I've never heard that before. So you're saying that if my inflammation is higher, it's actually basically like reducing my muscles and like breaking them down and making it hard to build them.

[C]

Exactly. So it's one of the things that's going to increase the risk of an older adult becoming physically frail.

[B]

So I'd love to talk a bit about what we can do, because I think you're now painting this picture that inflammation is playing a really big role, I think in how many healthy years we're having to enjoy. But there's one intervention in that. I know that you've studied really extensively, and I understand that's exercise. I think lots of people listening is like, well, you know, I know that exercise is good for me, but what's that got to do with, like, my immune system and inflammation? Can you help us to understand? Jenny?

[C]

I can, again, lots of ways. And as you said, we've known for a long time that the more physically active you are, you know, you reduce your risk of a whole range of diseases. You're likely to be longer lived and have a longer healthy lifespan. And it's now becoming clear that this might be because exercise reduces inflammation and it does it in lots of ways. So if you being very physically active, you're less likely to have too much adipose tissue, just too much fat. So you've reduced one of those sources of that inflammation. By doing that, you've reduced the risk of your vessels being damaged. I told you earlier about inflammation reduces your muscle mass and strength. So you've reduced one of the causes of you feeling more frail and less able to function physically. The other thing that your viewers may not be aware of is that muscle itself actually can be anti inflammatory. I didn't touch on that earlier, but moving muscle produces cytokines that dampen the inflammation down. Particularly they educate immune cells to be anti inflammatory. And so the more your muscle is moving, the more it's producing helpful cytokines to dampen the inflammation. And the more you sit, the less of those are being produced. So that's why we know that sedentary time is also important. So your viewers might struggle with this one.

[B]

So to help me to understand that,

[C]

run me through that different factors. So the time you spent doing exercise is great. It's going to give you all of these benefits, reduce the inflammation, help you to be more anti inflammatory. But if you then say you do your 45 minutes of exercise in the morning, you go and walk the dog, or you do a little jog, whatever you do for your exercise, and then you sit then for 8 or 10 hours watching daytime television, or you're at work and you're at your desk, you can undo a lot of that because the muscle will then not produce that dampening cytokine for that long period of time. So now we know that yes, you need to be physically active, but also don't be too sedentary. If you're sitting, you've got a desk job or you're at home, you're retired now perhaps every hour get up and move around, even if it's just for 10 minutes.

[B]

I think I'd understood why that might be good for my heart or something. There's always things like, you know, just having the muscles is good. But here you're describing the way that it's directly sort of almost orchestrating my immune system.

[C]

Is that totally? Totally. It turns out that your muscle is a major regulator of your immune system. It can make it less inflammatory, basically. And so if you're not moving then say you get an infection, you're much more likely to have this overshoot with your inflammation as long as you break that sitting time up. And then this pro inflammatory system can't really get established. So you get up, you know, after an hour, move around and then. Yeah, because sometimes, you know, you may not be able to, you know, stand up all day. I had a standing desk at work and so I did stand all day. So think about that one. That's another good one to think about.

[B]

So one thing you're saying is don't sit for a long time, I need to walk around because then I'm getting all of these benefits from my muscles that are sort of dampening my inflammation. What about the exercise itself? I guess how important is that? 45 minutes of something more intense. And what do you need to be doing to get the benefit to sort of fight this inflammation?

[C]

Yeah, so we sort of class exercise it in two broad areas as aerobics. So that's basically anything that raises your heart rate, gets you a little bit out of breath, and that is very good for reducing the inflammation, for helping your heart, helping your lungs as well as your muscle function itself. And the other type of exercise is what we call resistance exercise. So that's strengthening. This might be band work or if you go to a gym, lifting weights or I always say to people, you don't even need to go to the gym, just go up and down stairs. And then, you know, that's a really good exercise. It's aerobic and it's resistance, but the resistance is more important for the building of strength of your muscle and the muscle mass. So ideally you need to do both the aerobic to bring the inflammation down. The evidence is stronger there for aerobic bringing inflammation down and the resistance to keep your muscles themselves a good size and good function. I always say, you know, worst thing you can do as an older adult is to go and get a bungalow or live in an apartment with no steps and you'll end up with bungalow legs. So legs with less muscle and less strength.

[B]

That's really interesting. I heard this on speaking to another scientist a little while ago, thinking about what you should do with your parents. And I definitely was brought up with this idea that as your parents get older or anyone gets older, they should take it easy, they shouldn't have to carry their own bags. And he was saying, oh no, you should make your parents carry the shopping upstairs if you really love them. Is that really true?

[C]

Yeah, absolutely true, yes. My mother, when we were looking for a home for her to move into when she was downsizing, she wanted a ground level apartment. We said, no, mum, you're getting one with stairs, you're on the first floor or the second floor. She wasn't pleased about it, but I think she enjoyed it.

[B]

And you feel that basically you're giving her more years of healthy life.

[C]

Absolutely. Your ground floor, you're not using those stairs, you're not getting that exercise for your muscles. And it's such a simple thing to do. I always say to people, for no other reason, every day, just going up, down your stairs 10 times just for no reason, just go and do it as your exercise.

[A]

As you can imagine, hosting this podcast running Zoe Juggling Family Life. It all keeps me pretty busy. So I try as best I can to stay energized and show up well in all those parts of my life by fueling my body with the right food, by exercising, and by adding a scoop of daily 30 to my meals every day. If you haven't heard of Daily 30 yet, it's the gut supplement designed by our gut health scientists here at Zoe. It's made of over 30 high quality hand picked plants, including seaweed, fungi and different types of fiber. Better yet, it contains ingredients that support gut health, digestion and energy, which is ideal for packed calendars and busy lives. Simply add one scoop a day to any meal for an extra boost of fiber and plant diversity. And because it tastes delicious on just about anything and adds a satisfying crunch, it quite quickly slots into your life, becoming a daily healthy habit you'll always have time for. By the way, whenever we talk about Daily 30 as a good source of fiber, we're required to say that it contains 4 grams of total fat per serving. Obviously that's all amazing healthy fats from plants, so order yours [e-mail] daily30. Thanks for listening and see you next time.

[C]

It.