Positive lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet and regular exercise can reverse the anti-aging process, reveals a study which was published in the journal, The Lancet Oncology.
Researchers, in explaining the link between the length of telomeres and how long we live, and the impact of these lifestyle changes, explained, “After 5 years, relative telomere length had increased in the lifestyle intervention group and decreased in the control group; the difference between the groups were significant. We also found a correlation between the degree of adherence to the lifestyle changes and the extent of change in relative telomere length.”
Simply put, the longer the telomeres are, which are at the end of your chromosomes to prevent them from being damaged, the longer you live.
Alternatively, if they get damaged or are shortened, then the aging process begins and which triggers the aging process.
Speaking of which, shorter telomeres have been linked by a number of studies to premature death as well as age-related diseases including obesity, a number of cancers, vascular dementia and heart disease and so on and so forth.
As for this study, researchers had divided a group of low-risk cancer patients into two where the first had to make significant (and positive) lifestyle changes such as eating a whole foods plant-based diet, moderate exercise, work towards greater intimacy and social support as well as adopt stress management techniques. The second half of the group did not have to make any changes at all.
The length of the telomeres of men in both groups were measured at the beginning of the study and 5 years later, and the length of the telomeres in the first group increased by 10% compared to a decrease of 3% in size for those who did not make any changes.