Wednesday Bubble: It’s in the DNA, right?

Posted by Liz on Oct 3, 2012 in aging | 0 comments

Aging, it’s in the DNA, right?

Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but it appears that the length of your telomeres may be an important key.

Telo what?

Telomeres are little caps at the end of chromosomes that keep your genetic information intact and stable. In a sense, the body created telomeres to protect our genetic information and insure that it’s passed down to the next generation. Their gatekeepers are an enzyme called telemorase, and it insures telemere health. And while the length of our telemeres tend to shorten as we age, factors like health behavior, disease and exposure to internal inflammation and oxygen free radicals in the blood can also affect their length and stability, and promote illness that give aging a bad name in the first place.

Fortunately, it’s not all about genes. In fact, researchers now say that taking adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids may actually improve the odds.

Indeed, when researchers provided different doses of omega-3s  (or placebo pills) to 106 healthy but sedentary middle aged men and women and asked them to take them daily for four months, they found that significant and beneficial changes in telomere length. The low down:

• Participants took 2.5 g daily or 1.25 gram daily of omega-3 fatty acids (in a ratio of 7:1 EPA/DHA since EPA has shown to have stronger anti-inflammatory effects than DHA) or placebo. The placebo contained a mixture of oils designed to mimic the amount of fats that US adults typically consume in a day.
• Both groups of people taking omega-3s showed significant declines in the amount of inflammation in their body.
• The ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 were important: in fact, the lower the ratio, the longer the telomeres.

The researchers say that on average, most Americans consume a diet of omega-3s in a ratio that’s skewed towards omega-6, which comes in the form of vegetable oils im most people’s diets. The average diet tends to be low in omega-3s, the fatty acids typically found in cold-water fish like salmon or mackerel. But when the average ratio of omega-6/omega-3s is lowered from about 15:1 to 4:1 or 2:1, there are benefits to be had. In this case, the benefits are in the form of longer telomeres and in turn, the potential to reduce the risk for age-related diseases.

In a related press release, study co-author Ron Glaser makes an analogy to shoelaces, explaining that short fragments of DNA, telomeres, act as caps at the end of chromosomes,much like the protective plastic at the end of a shoelace. “If that plastic comes off, the shoelace unravels and it doesn’t work anymore. In the same way, every time a cell divides, it loses a bit of its DNA at the ends and over time, can cause significant problems.”

The bottom line is pretty clear: change your omega-3 ratio and you may change your aging odds. Sounds like a win-win.

(This study appears in the advanced online edition of Brain, Behavior and Immunology).