#telomeres, #telomere, #bluezones
A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA sequences at the end of a chromosome.
Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes from becoming frayed or tangled.
Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become slightly shorter.
Eventually, they become so short that the cell can no longer divide successfully, and the cell dies.
Telomere length is used as an indicator of cellular aging, because as the cell loses some of the telomere, it loses its ability to replicate effectively in the future.
That means as we get older, the cell loses its ability to replenish itself, and the body can't fix things or restore itself to a more youthful state.
So as the telomeres get shorter, that’s accelerating the process of aging.
But if a person is really healthy and eating well, the telomeres can grow back with an enzyme called telomerase.
Telomerase helps catalyze a reaction that repairs the lost telomere cap, which makes the telomere more resistant to being shortened.
Telomerase activity is the sign of a healthy body.
Shorter telomeres and the lack of activity of the telomerase enzyme, has been shown to shorten lifespan and increase the risk of cancer.
And recent studies have found that more oxidative stress – which means more free radical production in the cell in response to a poor diet – shortens the telomeres even more than replication does.
So that means when cells are not even replicating, their telomeres can be shortened by increased free radical activity due to improper diet.
A study by Dr. Ornish's, which was published in the medical journal Lancet Oncology, demonstrated for the first time that an intervention – in this case, giving people a healthier diet – showed a significant increase in telomerase activity.
This study by Dr. Ornish was highly significant, because prior to that, no intervention, even drugs, had been shown to be able to increase telomerase activity.
Dr. Ornish's research also showed that oncogenes – which are DNA defects that are programmed to accelerate cancer causation in a cell – were shut off by a healthy diet.
Oncogenes are often inherited, and cause one person to be at higher risk of cancer compared to another person.
The kind of healthy diet I am talking about that shuts the oncogenes off is one in which you eat enough cruciferous green vegetables, as well as your G-BOMBS – greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds.
When you eat a diet that is nutrient-dense and plant-rich, those genetic defects – which would put someone at a high-risk of breast cancer or colon cancer compared to another person – don't get expressed in the majority of cases.
Eating healthfully levels the playing field, because you have the same risk as any other person who doesn't have cancer in their family.
Another interesting fact about telomeres is that in observational studies,
higher levels of physical activity or exercise are related to longer telomere lengths in various populat
