Red blood cells are a window into our cellular health

Healthy Aging

The more fragile our red blood cells, the faster we age

In this series, we are covering the science behind our cellular health because our cells determine our overall health, and even our longevity.

Last week, we talked about how iron overload can exacerbate age-related cellular breakdown. This week, let’s dive into how our red blood cell health: 1) represents our overall cellular health, 2) protects against iron overload, and 3) even dictates the rate at which we age.

Red blood cells, please step forward.

Of the trillions of cells in our body, red blood cells are the best bellwethers of our whole-body cellular health. Why, you ask?

• Red blood cell health is very easy to evaluate. The next time you get your annual checkup, ask your doctor to include a red blood cell index panel, including hemoglobin and red blood cell distribution width (RDW).
• Red blood cell stability readily changes based on the fats we eat. As covered by Geiser’s paper, this holds true for most cells in our body.
• When red blood cells blood cells are fragile, they are prematurely removed from circulation. As a result, as described by Weiss et al., our hemoglobin levels, a key measurement of red blood cell health, declines.
• When red blood cells are sturdy and resilient, they help to deliver oxygen throughout our body.

For all of these reasons, the health of our red blood cells directly reflects our overall cellular health.

Chronic inflammaging makes fragile red blood cells more fragile.

As we age, our immune system inappropriately ramps up, resulting in a chronic, low lying inflammatory state called inflammaging. As summarized by Dugan et al., inflammaging is less of a 4-alarm emergency and more like a smoldering fire that – over time – takes a serious toll on our health. When inflammaging goes after our red blood cells, the result is called anemia of inflammation.

By now in our series on cell membranes, you can likely guess what makes inflammaging worse. As covered in Andrade et al., the more fragile and unstable polyunsaturated fatty acids we have in our red blood cell membranes, the more susceptible are our cells to inflammaging.

Fragile red blood cells cause iron overload.

Last week, we talked about how excess iron in our tissues causes age-related breakdown. But how does all that iron get into our tissues?

In their review, Weiss et al. show how fragile red bloods are removed from circulation by “cleaner” cells in our tissues, called macrophages. Once red blood cells are eaten by these macrophages they leave behind iron corpses. Thus, the more fragile our red blood cells, the more iron is accumulated in our tissues, which results in age-driving iron overload.

Weaker red blood cells are also a reflection of faster aging rates.

Given all the above, it probably isn’t surprising that weaker red blood cells are a reflection of our overall fragility… and even how fast we age. It all starts with hemoglobin, a key measurement of red blood cell health. As our red blood cells weaken and decline, so does our hemoglobin. As shown by Beutler et al., declining hemoglobin is linked to our aging rate.

The good news is that interventions that improve overall cellular stability and slow aging rates can also improve red blood cell stability and restore youthful hemoglobin levels (aka, evidence that your anti-aging compound is working).