ArticlePloS one2009
Inflammation and infection do not promote arterial aging and cardiovascular disease risk factors among lean horticulturalists.
Article in PloS one, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 110 citations in OpenAlex.
- The gut microbiota of Indigenous populations in the context of dietary westernization: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Early-life conditions and older adult health in low- and middle-income countries: a review.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2013Pooled it
- Effect of cardiorespiratory fitness on acute inflammation induced increases in arterial stiffness in older adults.European journal of applied physiology · 2013Trial
- Minimal Evidence of Inflammaging in Naturalistic Chimpanzee Populations.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Evaluation of a DNA methylation-based measure of chronic inflammation in two generations of adults in metropolitan Cebu, Philippines.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Ectopic adipose tissue in subsistence populations with minimal coronary disease, large left atria, and very low rates of atrial fibrillation.American journal of preventive cardiology · 2025Article
- Arterial Stiffness in Heart-Healthy Indigenous Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Urbanization exacerbates age-associated declines in cardiometabolic health in Turkana and Orang Asli.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Lower Socioeconomic Status Predicts Increased Proinflammatory Signaling in Late Pregnancy: Evidence From a Filipino Cohort.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2024Article
- The ASAP study: association of atherosclerosis with pathobiology in a caucasian cohort-a study of 3400 autopsy reports.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Comparative biology and non-traditional approaches for basic aging research for facilitating translational studies.GeroScience · 2024Article
- Three common assumptions about inflammation, aging, and health that are probably wrong.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Association between infectious exposures in infancy and epigenetic age acceleration in young adulthood in metropolitan Cebu, Philippines.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- Arterial hypertension and its covariates among nomadic Raute hunter-gatherers of Western Nepal: a mixed-method study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Natural selection of immune and metabolic genes associated with health in two lowland Bolivian populations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Ecoimmunology in the field: Measuring multiple dimensions of immune function with minimally invasive, field-adapted techniques.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Review
- Minimally invasive biomarkers in human and non-human primate evolutionary biology: Tools for understanding variation and adaptation.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Article
- Multidimensional associations between nutrient intake and healthy ageing in humans.BMC biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Very Low Prevalence and Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation among Bolivian Forager-Farmers.Annals of global health · 2021Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundArterial aging is well characterized in industrial populations, but scantly described in populations with little access to modern medicine. Here we characterize health and aging among the Tsimane, Amazonian forager-horticulturalists with short life expectancy, high infectious loads and inflammation, but low adiposity and robust physical fitness. Inflammation has been implicated in all stages of arterial aging, atherogenesis and hypertension, and so we test whether greater inflammation associates with atherosclerosis and CVD risk. In contrast, moderate to vigorous daily activity, minimal obesity, and low fat intake predict minimal CVD risk among older Tsimane. METHODS AND
findingsPeripheral arterial disease (PAD), based on the Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI), and hypertension were measured in Tsimane adults, and compared with rates from industrialized populations. No cases of PAD were found among Tsimane and hypertension was comparatively low (prevalence: 3.5%, 40+; 23%, 70+). Markers of infection and inflammation were much higher among Tsimane than among U.S. adults, whereas HDL was substantially lower. Regression models examine associations of ABI and BP with biomarkers of energy balance and metabolism and of inflammation and infection. Among Tsimane, obesity, blood lipids, and disease history were not significantly associated with ABI. Unlike the Tsimane case, higher cholesterol, C-reactive protein, leukocytes, cigarette smoking and systolic pressure among North Americans are all significantly associated with lower ABI.
conclusionsInflammation may not always be a risk factor for arterial degeneration and CVD, but instead may be offset by other factors: healthy metabolism, active lifestyle, favorable body mass, lean diet, low blood lipids and cardiorespiratory health. Other possibilities, including genetic susceptibility and the role of helminth infections, are discussed. The absence of PAD and CVD among Tsimane parallels anecdotal reports from other small-scale subsistence populations and suggests that chronic vascular disease had little impact on adult mortality throughout most of human evolutionary history.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.