What Actually Lowers Inflammation After 40 and What You Can Skip

Inflammation has become the word attached to everything in the wellness aisle. Powders, teas, and gummies all promise to calm it. Some of what is on those shelves rests on solid research, and some of it rests on a good label. This article starts with what happens to inflammation in midlife, then goes through what the evidence supports and where it runs thin.

What happens to inflammation around menopause

Acute inflammation is the body’s short-term response to an injury or an infection, and it does its job well. The kind that shows up in aging research is chronic, low-grade inflammation that hangs around at a low level and is linked to heart disease, osteoporosis, and arthritis. Researchers sometimes call the age-related version inflammaging.

The longest-running data on women comes from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, known as SWAN. A recent analysis followed women for 21 years across the menopause transition and tracked two inflammation markers, hs-CRP and IL-6. Women did not all follow the same path. About 31 percent of women had high hs-CRP that declined, about 42 percent stayed in a steady middle range, and about 27 percent started low and rose. The women who entered the transition with low to medium levels, particularly of IL-6, showed rises that began as early as a year before their final period and continued up to three years after it. The patterns also differed by body weight before menopause and by race and ethnicity. Black women were more likely to follow the high-decline pattern for hs-CRP, and Chinese and Japanese women were more likely to follow the low-rise pattern.

Other research points the same direction. A 2025 review notes that postmenopausal women often have higher levels of CRP and IL-6, and links the drop in estrogen to inflammation and to higher risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis. A 2020 study found that estradiol levels were inversely related to CRP in premenopausal women but not in postmenopausal women, and the authors said the mechanism remains unclear.

Put together, the research suggests that menopause contributes to rising inflammation for many women, though not for all of them, and that body weight and other factors shape what happens.

What the hs-CRP test can and cannot tell you

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or hs-CRP, is the blood test most often used to look at low-grade inflammation. Research studies commonly treat a level of 3 mg/L or higher as low-grade chronic inflammation. A single reading is a snapshot. The SWAN researchers noted that their data could not rule out that some high values came from a recent infection or illness, which is a good reason not to react to one number. If you want to know where you stand, ask your clinician whether the test is useful for you, and plan to repeat an elevated result.

What has the best evidence

A Mediterranean-style way of eating. This pattern has the strongest trial evidence of any food approach. In a sub-study of the PREDIMED trial, 164 people at high cardiovascular risk were randomly assigned to a Mediterranean diet with extra virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet with nuts, or a low-fat diet. After 12 months, both Mediterranean groups had significantly lower CRP and IL-6 than the low-fat group. A longer follow-up of 285 PREDIMED participants found that after 3 years the Mediterranean groups had lower levels of several inflammatory markers, including IL-6 and TNF-alpha, and those drops differed significantly from the low-fat group. The participants were older adults at elevated heart risk, so the results may not carry over exactly to every healthy 45-year-old. Even so, the food list is easy to live with: vegetables, fruit, beans and lentils, nuts, olive oil, fish, and whole grains, with less red meat and processed food.

Sleep. Research reviews report that short sleep raises inflammatory markers reliably and fairly quickly, and that improving sleep can show results sooner than diet or exercise changes do. Many women in perimenopause are fighting night sweats and 3 a.m. wake-ups, so this one deserves to be treated as a health priority.

Regular movement. Reviews also point to exercise as a consistent lever, and the benefit builds over weeks and months of consistency. The most useful kind is the one you will keep doing.

Where the evidence runs thin

Turmeric and curcumin. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says we do not know enough to conclude that turmeric or curcumin is beneficial for any health purpose. Standard oral forms are likely safe at recommended amounts for up to 2 or 3 months. If you enjoy turmeric in food, that is fine. If you are paying for a capsule because of an inflammation claim, the research does not back the promise yet.

Omega-3 supplements. One research review calls omega-3 fatty acids the best-supported anti-inflammatory supplement, though the evidence for any supplement is weaker than the evidence for eating pattern, sleep, and exercise. Fish in your meals is the simpler place to start.

Intermittent fasting. It gets a lot of attention as an inflammation strategy, and the same review describes the human evidence for that purpose as surprisingly weak.

If you take prescription medication, check with your pharmacist before adding any supplement.

A plan you can actually keep

Choose one or two changes and give them a few months. Shift your plate toward the Mediterranean pattern. Protect your sleep as if it were an appointment. Move your body on most days. Some reviews report that diet and exercise changes can move inflammatory markers within about 8 to 12 weeks, so if you do test your hs-CRP, retesting after three months of steady habits will tell you whether your effort is showing up in your blood.

Inflammation after 40 is real, it can be measured, and it responds to habits that are available to most women. The best-supported tools happen to be the least glamorous ones.

When you’re ready for care

Full disclosure, I founded Sovra Health because I wanted women to have the kind of care I needed. If you want a personalized midlife health plan, Sovra Her starts with an online visit with a licensed clinician who focuses on women in midlife. There’s no bloodwork to start, and not everyone qualifies.

Sources

• Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. The Relation Between Systemic Inflammation and the Menopause Transition, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and the full text
• Inflammaging and Cardiovascular Risk in Old Women, High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Prevention, 2025
• Park JM, Lee YJ. Serum oestradiol levels are inversely associated with C-reactive protein levels in premenopausal women, but not postmenopausal women, Journal of International Medical Research, 2020
• C-reactive protein gene rs1205 polymorphism and low-grade chronic inflammation in postmenopausal women (hs-CRP threshold of 3 mg/L)
• Casas R, et al. The Effects of the Mediterranean Diet on Biomarkers of Vascular Wall Inflammation and Plaque Vulnerability, PLoS One, 2014
• Urpi-Sarda M, et al. The 3-Year Effect of the Mediterranean Diet Intervention on Inflammatory Biomarkers Related to Cardiovascular Disease, 2021
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Turmeric
• Research reviews on sleep, exercise, omega-3, and fasting: Science Insights, What Decreases Inflammation in Your Body and How to Reduce Inflammation in the Body Naturally

This article is for education and is not medical advice.