Optimal Being

  Sometimes, a well-timed email can make a real difference. For Michael Collins, age 53, that life-changing message arrived from his employer’s wellness initiative in October 2020. It was the Monday after his doctor had told him that he was “in trouble” and needed to get his weight and diabetes under control.  Michael, a resident of Boaz, Alabama, and a mental health advocate for his state government, explained the extent of his health crisis: “The doctor told me that he couldn’t promise me [I would live] two weeks or six months. I mean, I was having heart palpitations… my heart was messing up. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t sleep. I was in bad shape.” The fateful email included an invitation to apply to a diabetes reversal program offered by a company called Virta Health. Michael filled out the forms and enrolled, initiating a remarkable health journey. He was one of more than 1,100 government employees who signed up (a mix from both state and local governmen...

What is inflammaging? The aging processes are accompanied by a chronic, smoldering background of inflammation that researchers call “inflammaging”. This backdrop of low-grade inflammation contributes significantly to mortality risk in the elderly and has a number of sources. The chronic inflammation that accompanies the aging process is believed to be a significant risk factor for a myriad of age-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis, arthritis, hypertension, and cancer [1-3]. The immune system relies on acute inflammation during the immune response to fight invading pathogens and to facilitate wound healing. This triggers cell turnover and tissue repair and is, in general, a desirable reason for inflammation. However, in direct contrast to this, inflammaging produces a chronic, low-grade, persistent background of inflammation that leads to poor tissue repair and degeneration [4]. This chronic inflammation also contributes to the development of age-related diseases and is instrumen...