Mediterranean Cuisine and Telomeres, 3

There is continuing interest in the relationship between telomere length and aging and what can contributes to longer telomeres. U.S. researchers, led by Immaculata De Vivo, Associate Professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, studied whether following a Mediterranean style of eating was associated with longer telomere length. After adjusting for other potentially influential factors, the results show that greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was significantly associated with longer telomeres. Interestingly, longer telomere length reflected the overall Mediterranean dietary pattern and not just one factor within that pattern. A Mediterranean style of eating is also being recommended for prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Marta Crous-Bou et al. Mediterranean diet and telomere length in Nurses’ Health Study: population based cohort study. BMJ 2014;349:g6674; DOI: 10.1136/bmj.g6674 (open access)

Mediterranean Cuisine and Tolomeres, 2

Elizabeth Blackburn, working with Joseph Gall at Yale University is generally credited with discovering the unusual nature of telomeres that function like caps at the ends of chromosomes. Their work was published in 1978. Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2009, for discovering how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and how Telomerase can help protect the telomeres—help keep them longer. (In some types of cancers, telomerase is hyperactive.) If you are interested in telomeres, you may want to listen to a 2008 YouTube presentation that was recorded by Blackburn talking about aging and telomeres. More tomorrow.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUQEG4BSK4

Mediterranean Cuisine and Telomeres

To understand the connection between a Mediterranean style of eating and telomeres, you need to know what telomeres are and do. It’s complicated but here’s what I understand. A chromosome is a strand of DNA along which are distributed genes (estimates are that your chromosomes contain 25,000 - 30,000 genes). Generally at the time of conception you received 46 chromosomes--23 from each parent--plus an XX or an XY. When cells in your body divide, the DNA (which encodes who you are as a human being) must divide and replicate, as well. Apparently DNA replication does not begin at either end of the DNA strand, but starts in the middle. The telomeres cap off each end of each DNA strand (like the little plastic pieces on each end of a shoelace). These telomere “caps” get a bit shorter with each replication unless they are balanced by the enzyme Telomerase, which can help prevent the shortening. More tomorrow. 

A Hug a Day Keeps the Doctor Away? Part 2

Research at Carnegie Mellon University studying the impact of conflict and social support—including hugging by trusted persons—found that:

• Perceived social support reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing conflicts
• Hugs were responsible for one-third of the protective effect of social support
• Among participants who became infected, greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs both resulted in less severe illness symptoms whether or not they experienced conflicts 

Sheldon Cohen, who led the study, said that the research” suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress. The apparent protective effect of hugs may be attributable to the physical contact itself or to hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and intimacy. Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection." Hmm. 

A Hug a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?

Are you a “hugger?” My brain has never pushed me in that direction, per se. Perhaps that came from being raised in a family where I don’t recall much hugging. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, I hugged my pets and sometimes close friends (but not always as hugging was never a measure of how much I cared about and valued a specific individual). It’s commonly understood that ongoing stressors such as conflict with others can reduce immune system function and increase the risk of infection. And the brain and immune system have their hands in each other's pockets, so to speak. Recently research by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University looked at conflict and social support—including hugging by trusted persons—and its association with risk of infection and with severity of illness symptoms. Lead researcher Sheldon Cohen and associates assessed 404 healthy individuals including the frequencies of interpersonal conflicts and receiving hugs. The 404 participants were then exposed to a cold virus and quarantined to assess for infection and symptoms of illness. What do you suppose they found? More tomorrow. 

TV and Longevity

It's the day after New Year's. On this second year of 2015 you might want to take a moment and figure out how much television you watch on a daily basis. One reported daily average in the United States is 4 hours a day; 3 hours a day in Australia. Recently I ran across the results of a six-year study of 8,800 Australian men and women (over age 25 with no history of heart disease) that was reported in the journal Circulation. Those who watched more than 4 hours of TV a day had an 80% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease over the 6-year time period as compared with people who watched 2 hours or less each day. The bottom line conclusion of the study? Too much TV is bad for your health. You may want to check out an article by Mark Stibich,  PhD, on the topic.

http://longevity.about.com/od/liveto100/a/television-life-expectancy.htm

Happy New Year

New Year's Day. A fresh start to the next year and the first day of the rest of my life. It’s the best day because it is today and I am alive and well. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it: Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. Take a moment. Be grateful for another year lived a day at a time. What is your dream for this year? Start on it today. Dreams are what give birth to progress . . . I have some dreams for this year and I know I’ll make mistakes. In the words of Neil Gaiman: “Hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something.” Embrace mistakes—they’re a signal that you’re human. The only people who make no mistakes are those that have died! Avoid embarrassment about mistakes. Embarrassment is a choice, so stop choosing it. I know I’ll make mistakes this year, learn from them (hopefully) and get busy making more. Have a happy day and a wonderful year!