Making some simple lifestyle changes could turn back the clocks and reverse cell aging.
A study found certain changes could influence the length of telomeres, which are "DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes that directly affect how quickly cells age," a Morning Post Exchange press release reported. Researchers compared them to the caps at the end of shoelaces that keep them from fraying.
The telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes, as they shorten over time cells age more quickly. Shorter telomeres have been linked to age-related diseases and even premature death.
The research team looked at two groups of men who had been diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer but had not received conventional treatments.
Ten of the men were asked to make "comprehensive lifestyle changes," and a group of 25 subjects went on as usual.
Some of the lifestyle changes included eating a plant-based diet, exercising moderately, managing stress, and increasing quality of intimate and social life.
The researchers used groundbreaking scientific measurement techniques to measure the telomere length at the start of the study and then five years later.
The group that changed their lifestyle significantly were found to have an increased telomere length of 10 percent. The control group's telomeres were three percent shorter after the five-year period.
"Furthermore, there was a significant dose-response relationship in both groups between the degree of lifestyle change and the extent of change in telomere length: the more the participants made positive changes to their lifestyle, the greater their telomeres increased in length," the press release reported.
These lifestyle changes have been shown to have significant health benefits in the past, but have never been proven to effect telomeres or cell aging.
The study did not test the effect of lifestyle changes on the patients' cancer, but an earlier trial from the same research team found improving everyday habits could delay the development of early-stage prostate cancer.
"The implications of this relatively small pilot study may go beyond men with prostate cancer. If validated by large-scale randomized controlled trials, these comprehensive lifestyle changes may significantly reduce the risk of a wide variety of diseases and premature mortality. Our genes, and our telomeres, are a predisposition, but they are not necessarily our fate," Professor Dean Ornish, of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, said.
