#296 How to Age Slower by Supporting Immunity and Reducing Inflammation | Dr Jenna Macciochi
7th May 2025
What if ageing well had less to do with your genes, your skincare routine or the supplements you take ... and more to do with your immune system?
Most of us think about immunity as something that only matters when we’re fighting off a cold or flu. But actually, it’s quietly working behind the scenes every single day shaping how we feel, how we recover and how long we stay well.
Our immune health is also constantly evolving and changing over our lifecycle. From birth to our 20s, midlife and beyond our immune system plays a critical role in how we feel, our risk of disease and how well we age.
Dr Jenna Macciochi is an immunologist specialising in the intersection of nutrition, movement, mind-body practices and lifestyle with the immune system in health and disease.
She’s also a brilliant science communicator who has a beautiful way of weaving science with story. In her new book, Immune to Age, Dr Jenna reframes immunity not as a fortress that springs into action, but as a lifelong partner guiding us through the seasons of our lives from the day we’re born to the way we age.
We dive into:
- Why inflammation is not just good or bad
- How your immune system changes with age
- What to focus on in your 20s, 40s and beyond
- The role of inflammation, infection and stress in ageing
- Supplements like creatine, collagen, taurine, peptides and nootropic mushrooms
Follow @dr_jenna_macciochi and preorder the book “Immune to Age”
Episode guests
Jenna is an immunologist with a passion for understanding the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on our immune system. She holds a PhD from the Faculty of Inflammation, Repair & Development at Imperial College London specialising chronic inflammation. Jenna has since held positions at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine & worked in Biotech specialising allergy and oral immunotherapy.
In 2009 Jenna was awarded a Fellowship to combine her personal interests in nutrition with study of the immune system in Switzerland, working on metabolic endotoxemia, post-prandial gut permeability, diet regimens & use of pre/probiotics. Life in Switzerland combined with her research shaped how she lives her life to give her the most energy to live life to the full. Currently a lecturer at the University of Sussex, Jenna teaches undergraduate & postgraduate immunology to medical, pharmacy & biomedical sciences students. Her research focus remains on understanding the role of nutrition & lifestyle on immunity. A Brighton-based & mother of twins, Jenna is a perpetual culinary experimenter who loves to cook from scratch using sustainable, local & seasonal ingredients. Growing up farm-to-table in rural Scotland, cooking has always been a big part of her life & nurtured her appreciation of food as the foundation of health. With a passion for movement, she is also a trained fitness instructor focusing on pre & post-natal womens fitness. nDr Jenna is currently working on a huge passion project and is writing a book all about the immune system: sorting fact from fiction, dispelling myths and with recipes and rituals to improve your immunity and help you adapt & self-manage, cultivating long term health & wellbeing.
- Access over 1000 research backed recipes
- Personalise food for your unique health needs
