U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HUMAN GENOME PROGRAMLifestyle changes meant to increase physical fitness, lower stress, and alter diet were associated with lengthened telomeres in a small group of men, according to a study published yesterday (September 17) in The Lancet Oncology.
Telomeres are protective assemblages of DNA and protein at the ends of chromosomes. They guard the chromosomes from disintegration, and shorten with age. Telomere length is considered a marker of cellular health. “The more people changed their lifestyle, the more their telomeres got longer,” study coauthor Dean Ornish from of the University of California, San Francisco, told NPR.
Ornish and his colleagues recruited men with low-risk prostate cancer to either receive help changing their lifestyles or to be part of a control group and receive no lifestyle intervention. Members of the intervention group were taught to eat a low-fat diet high in fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains, and legumes, and received meals during the early months of the study. They engaged in moderate exercise, attended support ...
