MONDAY, September 16, 2013 — Diet and exercise can help you live a healthier life, and according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, these lifestyle changes can actually affect the way you age.
MONDAY, September 16, 2013 — Diet and exercise can help you live a healthier life, and according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, these lifestyle changes can actually affect the way you age. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) found that small lifestyle changes, such as eating healthy and exercising, can lengthen your telomeres, the part of chromosomes linked to aging and diseases such as cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
“So often people think ‘Oh, I have bad genes, there’s nothing I can do about it,’” said Dean Ornish, MD, study author and a clinical professor of medicine at UCSF, said in a statement. “But these findings indicate that telomeres may lengthen to the degree that people change how they live. Research indicates that longer telomeres are associated with fewer illnesses and longer life.”
Telomeres are caps on the ends of chromosomes that shorten as we age. As a cell's telomeres get shorter, the cells their ability to divide and function normally. Researchers looked at 35 men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer, 10 of whom made lifestyle changes including diet and exercise. After five years, the researchers found that the men who underwent the lifestyle changes increased their telomere length by 10 percent compared to the control group.
The men who altered their lifestyle ate a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in refined carbohydrates, walked 30 minutes a day, six days a week, engaged in yoga and meditation, and also participated in weekly support groups.
While healthy lifestyles and nutrients, including zinc, vitamin A, vitamin D, resveratrol and olive oil, have been shown to slow telomere shortening in past, this is the first time research has shown that telomeres are capable of lengthening, said Michael Wald, MD, an internist in Mount Kisco, N.Y., who conducts telomere testing. However, the sample size for this study was very small, and much more work needs to be done.
“Larger studies would pave the way for healthy lifestyle protocols and recommendations to become more mainstream,” Dr. Wald said. “Longevity medicine would be ‘proved’ in the sense that we would then be able to scientifically claim that aging is a reversible process.”
And if aging is proved to be reversible, he added, it would fundamentally change medicine.
“The mindset of doctors and average individuals may shift towards reversing against strategies and health care as opposed to the present disease care system,” Wald said. “Doctor’s education in medical school would shift to keep pace with health promotion strategies and true prevention. Currently medicine’s only prevention is largely ‘watch what you eat’ and hope for the best.”
The researchers admitted that more research needs to be done, but said the findings could one day lead the way to longer, healthier lives.
“This was a breakthrough finding that needs to be confirmed by larger studies,” study co-author Peter Carroll, MD, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Urology, said in a statement. “Telomere shortening increases the risk of a wide variety of chronic diseases. We believe that increases in telomere length may help to prevent these conditions and perhaps even lengthen lifespan.”