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Title: Fat-Containing Foods Found to Affect Telomere Length
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URL Source: http://www.naturalhealthresearch.or ... und-to-affect-telomere-length/
Published: Jun 10, 2013
Author: staff
Post Date: 2016-04-20 04:24:53 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 92
Comments: 5
NHRI All short and medium chain saturated fatty acids, except lauric acid (in coconut oil) may make aging more rapid. Our DNA gives us a signal as to how fast we age through a structure at the end of each of the chromosomes that houses our DNA called a telomere. Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes (1), but every time our cells divide our telomeres shorten and this is believed to be a marker for the aging process (2). While the exact way to find out how telomeres shorten is still not fully understood, dietary factors are thought to play an important role (3, 4). Now a new study (5) suggests that diets containing higher amounts of fat may hamper the health of our telomeres. The study involved 4,029 postmenopausal women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative (6). The women provided dietary information on total fat intake, individual fatty acids, and fat-rich foods via a questionnaire. There were 19 questions on the type of fat intake and 122 questions on portion size and how frequently they consumed food items (7). They then provided blood samples to have their telomere length measured by a process called quantitative polymerase chain reaction that’s been done in previous research (8). The researchers found that diets containing higher amounts of fat were associated with shorter telomere length. Specifically, those with the highest intake of short-to-medium chain saturated fatty acids (1.29% of total calories) had 3% shorter telomeres (4.0 vs. 4.13 kilo base pairs) compared to those with the lowest intake of short-to-medium chain saturated fatty acids (0.29% of calories) (p = 0.046). The fat-containing food sources found to be most deleterious to telomere length were non-skim milk, butter, and whole-milk cheese. The researchers found that substituting 1% of calories from short-to-medium-chain fatty acid with any other energy source was associated with 119 base pair longer telomeres. The only medium-chain fatty acid that did not have a deleterious effect on telomere length was lauric acid, the primary medium chain fat found in coconut oil. No significant associations were found with long-chain saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. While admitting that “higher intakes of short to medium-chain fatty acids were associated with shorter telomere length among postmenopausal women” and that “these findings suggest the potential roles of short to medium-chain fatty acids in the rate of biological aging”, the researchers concluded that “prospective studies are clearly warranted to further investigate the role of short to medium-chain fatty acids in affecting changes in telomere length among postmenopausal women, and the possible role of telomere length in mediating subsequent disease occurrence.” Abstracted by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS from “Intake of Small-to-Medium-Chain Saturated Fatty Acids Is Associated with Telomere Length in Postmenopausal Women” in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Posted June 10, 2013. a/ar Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com References: Anderson GL,Manson J,Wallace R, Lund B,Hall D, Davis S, Shumaker S, Wang CY, Stein E, Prentice RL. Implementation of the Women’s Health Initiative study design. Ann Epidemiol. 2003;13:S5–17. Harley CB, Futcher AB, Greider CW. Telomeres shorten during ageing of human fibroblasts. Nature. 1990;345:458–60. Slagboom PE, Droog S, Boomsma DI. Genetic determination of telomere size in humans: a twin study of three age groups. Am J Hum Genet. 1994;55:876–82. Valdes AM, Andrew T, Gardner JP, Kimura M, Oelsner E, Cherkas LF, Aviv A, Spector TD. Obesity, cigarette smoking, and telomere length in women. Lancet. 2005;366:662–4. Song Y. Intake of Small-to-Medium-Chain Saturated Fatty Acids Is Associated with Peripheral Leukocyte Telomere Length in Postmenopausal Women. Jou Nutr 2013; 143(6):907-914. Hays J, Hunt JR, Hubbell FA, Anderson GL, Limacher M, Allen C, Rossouw JE. The Women’s Health Initiative recruitment methods and results. Ann Epidemiol. 2003;13:S18–77. Patterson RE, Kristal AR, Tinker LF, Carter RA, Bolton MP, Agurs- Collins T.Measurement characteristics of the Women’s Health Initiative food frequency questionnaire. Ann Epidemiol. 1999;9:178–87. You NC, Chen BH, Song Y, Lu X, Chen Y, Manson JE, Kang M, Howard BV, Margolis KL, et al. A prospective study of leukocyte telomere length and risk of type 2 diabetes in postmenopausal women. Diabetes. 2012;61:2998–3004. Poster Comment: So eat no-fat cheese, dairy? Organs less decrepit, live longer.
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#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
That is the question. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fre nch_paradox
Despite avoiding/minimizing CVD French are still 19th in terms of longevity at 81.75 years so their record 26 kg annual cheese consumption may be knocking them off with early cell death. More likely they're still doing well because: "Some scientists theorize heart disease is strongly linked to an overactive sympathetic nervous system (which can be triggered by stress), and this may also in part explain why beta blockers have been shown to reduce mortality in heart patients by blocking the stress hormone, adrenaline" If you experience harassment adrenaline builds up in your body and if you don't use it up beating the sh*t out whomever is bugging you the hormone likely undermines homeostasis as it dissipates.
I wouldn't put too much stock in this study. Cheese is very high in K2 a necessary vitamin to help prevent heart disease. There are other factors besides diet that effect telomere length, such as exercise. It could be those that tend to eat a higher fat diet don't exercise as much as those that don't. So fat consumption may have nothing to do whatsoever with telomere length.
RickyJ, is it really you? Good to see you active. I don't profess to have the answer on any of this, but 81.75 years sounds like plenty to me :-) Please let us hear more from you - whether in agreement with N.N. or not.
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#4. To: Tatarewicz (#2)
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