Make your telomeres longer to slow aging....

Today's Post:  Friday, 12-7-2012

Earlier this week, David Blyweiss, M.D., in his Advanced Natural Medicine Bulletin email had an important announcement.

There’s something you can do that not only slows aging but to some degree partially reverses it!

Regular readers will recall that on Thursday, 11-29, last week the post here was about the harm that people do themselves by unknowingly massively overdosing themselves with omega 6 oils that boost inflammation and NOT getting enough omega 3 oils that turn down excessive inflammation.

Here’s the news:  Researchers at Ohio State found that following the advice in that post or the advice that Dr Blyweiss gave in his email -- for just 4 months -- particularly adding more omega 3 oils from wild caught fatty fish -- they used an omega 3 supplement containing these oils – enabled the middle aged and older people studied to make their telomeres longer.

Yes you read that correctly.  To some extent doing this reversed the aging process in these people!

As many of you know, telomeres are the protective caps at the end of your strands of DNA.  If they become too short your body makes slightly defective copies of your DNA causing aging and research shows increasing your chances of getting cancer and other diseases because of these defective copies. 

This is a major factor if not THE causing factor in aging.

That means that if your telomeres become longer, the process of aging in you has been partly reversed.  You become less likely to get many diseases and your life will be longer.

Dr Blyweiss put it this way: 

““Shortened telomeres open you up to an increased risk of many health issues; including heart disease, cancer, dementia and chronic inflammation. They are also linked to a reduced lifespan.

Longer telomeres, on the other hand, are associated with robust health and a longer lifetime.

That's why I'm so excited about the Ohio State University study I mentioned earlier. It reveals groundbreaking evidence on how you can extend the length of your telomeres.”

“When the researchers dug a little deeper, they discovered the secret of how it works. It turns out the ratio of the participant's omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids was clearly associated with lengthened telomeres.”

He goes on to say as I did last week that most people today not only get too little omega 3 but get WAY too much omega 6 oils.

“Omega-6 oils account for the majority of polyunsaturated fatty acids in our food supply. They're found in vegetable oils, salad dressings, fried foods, margarines and many other foods. So we tend to really load up on them without even knowing it.

Worse, packaged foods that may have once been high in omega-3 fats are stripped of them in the manufacturing process. This extends the shelf-life of the products. So it's a big win for the manufacturer, but a bigger loss for you.

Given our diets, it probably won't surprise you to learn some analysts say the average American has an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 20:1. Your ideal ratio should be around 3:1 or 4:1.”

I’ve heard that our ancestors ate in a way that resulted in a ratio of 2:1 to 1:1.  So that may actually be what our bodies are optimized for.

That suggest that stopping 90% of uour omega 6 intake and at least doubling your omega 3 intake if not adding even more omega 3 is a huge benefit to you and your health.

He then points out, as I did last week, that simply no longer eating such oils as corn oil and safflower oil and using olive oil instead to remove excessive omega 6 from your diet dramatically improves your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio -- in addition to adding omega 3 oils from omega 3 and DHA supplements and eating fatty, wild caught fish high in omega 3 oils.

He didn’t mention avoiding all soy oil which is a major contributor to most people taking in too much omega 6 because it’s so cheap it’s in so many foods.

(He did miss one with canola oil.  It does have the plant kind of omega 3.  But compared to the far more bioactive omega 3 oils from fish and from algae which is where the fish get it from, that kind of omega 3 is not as effective as it might be AND canola oil too is high in omega 6 oils and 97% of it is from GMO crops.)

He too recommends an upgraded version of the Mediterranean diet.

And, as I do he recommends completely removing packaged snacks an desserts and baked goods and fast foods.

Not only are they high in omega 6 but almost everything else they are made of is harmful to eat.

He put it this way:

“Cut back on processed foods. Foods like cookies, breads, cakes, chips, crackers and pastries are loaded with omega-6 oils as well as trans fats and gluten. In fact, you'll find omega 6's in almost all snack foods. There is very little, if any, nutritional value in processed foods. And they play havoc on your blood sugar and weight. So there are multiple reasons to stay away from these foods.”

Exactly right!

He also recommends that any meat you eat be from animals fed only grass:

“Buy grass-fed meats. Most of today's commercial livestock is grain-fed, which means you're getting more and more omega-6 fatty acids (a lot from corn fed cattle) from the meat you're eating. Meat from grass-fed livestock has a more favorable omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio than grain-fed animals.”

Eating the fats from grain fed meat is a major source of excess omega 6 oils in the diet of most people today.

That’s why the DASH II diet that recommends foods with animal fat be the leanest most fat free versions gets good health results. 

That was done initially to cut saturated fat from the diet of people eating it and when most people only ate animal protein foods that had been fed grain.  But in addition to adding more vegetables and deleting “Foods like cookies, breads, cakes, chips, crackers and pastries” the fact that the DASH II diet gets good health results also is because it removes fats high in omega 6

To enjoy eating omega 6 oil free, eat the Mediterranean diet and use only extra virgin olive oil, eat wild caught fish, and only pasture fed poultry or “legumes” aka beans, lentils, and blackeyed peas.  And on rare occasions have meat from animals fed ONLY grass is better in many ways.  (New Zealand lamb and beef from cattle fed only grass are available online and in Whole Foods stores.)

But for cost reasons -- and for many people availability at their local stores, it’s good to know the DASH II method of eating very lowfat meats to remove the excess omega 6 oils in the grain fed meats and dairy foods in it.

Dr Blyweiss closed with this:

“Remember. Your telomeres are like a fuse. They get shorter and shorter as you age. But you can lengthen your telomeres – and avoid many of today's most devastating health issues – just by correcting your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.”

Can you do anything else?

Yes!

There ARE other things that slow aging or speed it up suggesting strongly they may also lengthen or shorten telomeres.

Regular and vigorous exercise most days of every week -- as long as you avoid excessive long duration cardio such as running for more than half an hour at a time definitely slows aging.

Research done at Stanford University showed conclusively that regular vigorous exercise slows aging, prevents diseases of aging and dramatically increases your lifespan. 

Smoking and exposure to second hand smoke have the reverse effect and sharply speed up aging.  The diseases they cause often result in early death besides.

Taking 500 mg a day or more of vitamin C has been shown to help keep your telomeres from shortening.

Avoiding excessive and severe stress when you can and practicing meditation or better doing Tai Chi on a regular basis to turn off stress overreactions and give you a stress break also help you protect your telomeres.

Being good to the people around you and socializing with them often also helps relieve stress

--or sometimes will get you help when you need it -- and will help you protect your telomeres.

And, many other ways are beginning to be known.

But these are some of the big ones.

Now you know that slashing omega 6 intake and using extra virgin olive oil and adding to your omega 3 intake not only prevents your telomeres from getting shorter but has been shown to make them longer!