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Are you ageing rapidly or simply living in the modern world?

Recent studies have found associations between inflammation, environmental circumstances, and lifestyle factors. While this research has reconceptualised the link between inflammation and ageing, it has also revealed how a lack of choice for young working-class people will result in negative health consequences not just now, but in the long term.

With the recent heatwave the UK has been facing, you might have spent a weekend stripped off and sweating, moving only to align your face with the breeze from the standing fan, your last hope of any kind of relief short of taking a dunk in a bath filled with ice cubes. As I write this, patting periodically at my glistening forehead, I can attest, it is, most definitely, hot. 

However, the sun’s rays aren’t the only physical heat many of us are experiencing. Many people live with chronic inflammation. In fact, according to the National Library of Medicine, ‘chronic inflammatory diseases are the most significant cause of death in the world’. What’s more, inflammation as a symptom was previously thought to have been exacerbated by ageing, known as inflammaging.

Contrary to this perception, a study published by Nature Aging has revealed that inflammation might not be as much a part of getting older as it is a consequence of current environmental circumstances and lifestyle factors.  More specifically, researchers found that those living in industrialised societies displayed higher age-impacted inflammation levels compared with those from Indigenous communities.

As Nature reports, this research was carried out using ‘blood samples from people living in Italy and Singapore, along with those from Indigenous participants living in non-industrialised or semi-industrialised communities in Bolivia and Malaysia’, over half of whom were female. In these latter communities, inflammation related health conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and heart problems are much rarer than in urban centres. 

The results have prompted anthropologists and researchers to reconsider ‘the whole nature of inflammation, altering previously held conceptions that ‘inflammation is an inexorable, inevitable part of ageing.’ Like stress-related disorders, addiction, and cardiovascular disease,  to name a few, inflammation is likely to be yet another capitalogenic symptom. Like capitalism, at least this means it is somewhat reversible.

You’re in pain because you’re poor 

In general, ailments like those listed above – including inflammation – disproportionately impact the working-class whose oppression necessarily predicates the disproportionate wealth and greed of those at the top of the capitalist chain. 

A study published in the British Medical Journal revealed an association between deprivation (figured as ‘items lacking’) and health problems, with the lowest income group experiencing three times more health complaints than the highest income group. That was almost 30 years ago. 

As academic Jonathon C Wells writes, historically ‘capitalism [has] contributed to the under-nutrition of many populations through demand for cheap labour.’ Today, people in deprived areas still have comparatively reduced access to high-quality medical assistance. 

Research published in the Lancet in 2017 ‘revealed that low socioeconomic status (SES) had almost the same impact on health than smoking or a sedentary lifestyle’. What’s more, ‘researchers found that, compared to their wealthier counterparts, people with low SES were 46% more likely to die early.’ 

And, according to a ScienceDirect study, ‘higher education, occupation and wealth were longitudinally associated with a lower likelihood of cognitive impairment and dementia.’

However, that doesn’t mean that the rich don’t suffer too. A few years ago an article written by Clay Cockrel, a therapist for the super-rich, did the rounds. In it, Cockrel explained how wealth had had a negative impact on the mental health of his clients, with many of them experiencing feelings of loneliness and mistrust.

Likewise, people with a higher income may be more likely to develop more severe addiction issues thanks to the availability of financial resources.

 

 

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A post shared by Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultanamp)

Capitalism abolishes choice 

Except of course, when we talk about the distinction that Nature Aging’s study makes between industrialised and indigenous communities, this isn’t the same as distinguishing between those with wealth and those without.

As MP Zarah Sultana commented last week, ‘just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population.’ Meanwhile, ‘poverty’, and the associated consequences of poor health, ‘are growing.’  

That is to say, since it is the majority of people in capitalist society who constitute the working class, it is the majority of people impacted by lifestyle and environmental factors that contribute to inflammation. What makes this even worse? These inflammation inducing conditions are often beyond their control

Thred’s own Sofía Philips has written previously about how a disconnect with nature is having a negative impact on our mental health. Relatedly, Flo Bellinger has written about how stressed young professionals are.

A quick scroll and thousands of YouTube videos on how to fix your back after spending hours a day behind a desk also signify how demeaning office jobs can mess up not just our posture but our overall physical and mental wellbeing. 

In fact, the internet provides a whole wealth of reconciling resources that we can plunge ourselves into if we can keep our eyes open long enough after our working days. Sure, we might have more time to read them when, if, we ever reach retirement, but by then it’ll be too late, and the damage will be done. 

By which I mean: until we deconstruct the tiered capitalist system which forces people into poor working conditions that are contributing to worser health in the long run, working class people will, disproportionately, continue to bear the brunt of consequences. 

One can only hope – despite evidence to the contrary of rich people denying climate change – that perhaps the empirical evidence produced by Nature Aging’s study might help to dispel some of the false notions that a capitalist society is the most superior one. 

Inflammation is not an age issue. It’s a class one.

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