The Antiager That Won a Nobel Prize

Some great rules to live by!

Have a great week!

Enjoy!

November 8, 2009 12:00 AM by Mehmet C. Oz, MD, and Michael F. Roizen, MD

The real secret to keeping your body young may be the tips of your shoelaces. Or, really, tiny parts of your body that act like them. Just as those plastic nibs keep your shoelaces from fraying, tiny cellular tips called telomeres protect your DNA from fraying when cells divide. When they're tattered, they're much harder to use. That's what causes cells to stop dividing and growing and replenishing your body -- which means more aging for you.

Telomeres made headlines this fall when three American scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering them and exploring their role in health and aging. It's prizeworthy stuff: Shortened telomeres contribute to heart disease, diabetes, reduced immunity, and possibly even brittle bones. In people over age 60, those with the shortest DNA tips have been shown to be three times more likely to die from heart disease and eight times more likely to die from an infectious disease than those with longer, "younger" telomeres. Shorter-than-usual telomeres have also been found in many cancers, including those of the pancreas, bone, prostate, bladder, lung, kidney, and head and neck.

One of the most exciting things about telomeres is that your everyday choices can make a big difference in how young they stay. Unhealthy choices can age you by an extra 5, 7, or even 10 years. But YOU have the power to determine whether your telomeres take early retirement or not. In one University of California, San Francisco, study, for example, men who changed their diets, got regular exercise, and calmed their stress with meditation actually increased levels of an enzyme that lengthens telomeres in immune cells. Just what should you tell your telomeres to keep yourself young and healthy?

• Take it down a notch. Your stress, that is. The most stressed-out women have enough telomere shortening to make themselves 10 years older (including wrinkling!); moms of disabled children also tend to have shortened telomeres. So do pessimists! Researchers have shown that meditation coupled with walking and a change in diet -- toward healthy choices only -- lengthens your telomeres. Others are now studying whether mindfulness meditation alone can preserve telomere length. We already know that the technique can help you with the next factor that keeps telomeres young.
  
• Get an attitude. Worrying about pounds, food choices, and calories is associated with shorter telomeres, according to a University of California, San Francisco, study of constant dieters. Step off the diet roller coaster and achieve a consistent lower weight (and longer telomeres) with exercise and a meal plan packed with mindful eating plus healthful vegetables, fruit, whole grains, low-fat dairy, lean protein, and good fats from foods including fish, nuts, and avocados.
  
• Activate yourself. Inactive people have shorter telomeres than active people. The difference is enough to age the sitting-around crowd by an extra decade. Take a walk for at least 30 minutes a day. Physical activity can also help reduce belly fat, another telomere foe.
  
• Say goodbye to tobacco. Smoking two packs a day for 20 years aged participants in one telomere study by an additional 7.4 years. Your telomeres aren't the only reason you need to nix tobacco. Smoking messes with everything from your lungs (of course) to your heart, and even your wrinkles and your sex life -- and everything in between.
  
• Go Mediterranean. That's the meal plan we mentioned above, in the second point -- eat a diet rich in delectable vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and healthy fats. Telomeres, in one study, were longest in those eating the most vitamin C-rich foods, including citrus fruit, strawberries, and red bell peppers; and vitamin E-rich foods, such as whole grains. Add salmon and trout, olive oil, and a cup of tea -- or two or three. Researchers in Hong Kong found the longest telomeres in men who drank three cups of green, or sometimes black, tea a day.

So there's no need to invest in one of the pricey telomere-pampering supplements showing up on the Internet these days -- at least not until more data demonstrate that they do more than transfer money from your wallet. But stay tuned. You may be able to increase the effect of great habits with things that make telomeres grow (such as telomerase). But for now, stress less, exercise more, and go Mediterranean.