Aging Telomeres and Yoga New Study by Elizabeth Blackburn and Dean Ornish

by Baxter

Telomere Caps

A while back, we reported on an interesting potential marker in the body for aging of the cells connected to the genes called a telomere (see Stressed Mind, Stressed Cells and Science, Aging and Yoga). A telomere is like a tail on the end of DNA strands found in our cells, and an enzyme called telomerase influences the length and activity of the telomere. Studies done a few years ago by a Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn at UCSF in San Francisco began to show a connection between telomeres and cell longevity—the longer the telomere, the longer the cell life. Her work garnered her a Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Now Dr. Blackburn has teamed up with Dr. Dean Ornish to see what effect his life-style changes approach to prostate cancer has on telomeres and telomerase activity. Dr. Ornish has already shown that a combination of dietary changes (vegan diet with less than 10% fat per day), exercise in the form of walking for 30 minutes most days, and stress management tools that include regular yoga asana and breath work, mindfulness meditation and once a week group stress reduction sessions can reverse heart disease and diabetes, and can stabilize prostate cancer and stop its progression.

In their most recent study, published in Lancet Oncology (see Effect of comprehensive lifestyle changes on telomerase activity and telomere length in men with biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer: 5-year follow-up of a descriptive pilot study), the two researchers looked at how the lifestyle program impacted the cellular genetic level in regards to telomere length and enzyme activity. What they found was that the 10 men studied had longer telomeres in the short (as quickly as three months!) and long run, if they stuck to the program, and the 25 men who were controls had shorter telomeres. And they also looked at gene activity in their ten study subjects, and found that 500 genes were turned on, and all were beneficial, according to Ornish. 

Even though telomeres may be an indicator of longer cell life, and by extension, longer overall lifespan, this has not been definitively concluded, so more studies will need to be done, looking at much larger numbers of people. But the early evidence is promising, and even if the telomere/aging cell theory does not pan out, it seems evident that yoga, diet, exercise and stress management do have significantly positive impacts on health, disease progress or remission, and are therefore worth the effort. And as Dr. Ornish noted, his study participants found the lifestyle plan easy to follow, with 85-90% compliance, much better than most pharmaceutical based treatment plans. Why, you might ask? Well, has he says, it’s because it’s pleasant and comprehensive and “most people feel so much better they change their lifestyle.”

To read more, you can check out articles at ucsf.edu and today.com—among others—which reported these new findings.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

CATT Study Update 4 Avastin vs Lucentis Study Ready to Roll

On the eve of the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting in New Orleans, scheduled to begin tomorrow (November 9-14), the Center for Preventative Ophthalmology and Biostatistics at UPenn has finally updated their website on the CATT Study. The website now contains almost everything you need to know about the study.

In particular: What Is Neovascular AMD and Why Is the CATT Study Important?

This section provides an explanation of what AMD is and how it is treated, along with some information about the CATT Study, its design and aims.

The Study’s primary aim is to evaluate the relative safety and efficacy of treatment of subfoveal AMD with both Avastin and Lucentis, determine an appropriate dosing schedule and, to see if there is any clinical difference between the two drugs. Some of the secondary aims include:

• Determination of the number of treatments required at 1 and 2 year periods
• Determination if either or both drugs provide a 3-line change in visual acuity (15 letters on ETDRS chart)
• Changes in subretinal and intraretinal fluid on OCT examination
• Changes in lesion size on fluorescein angiograph examination
• Incidence of any complications of treatment (endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, cataract, uveitis)
• Incidences of other adverse effects
• Comparison of the cost of treatment over two years

There are two links within the document: one describes the eligibility requirements, while the second is a 258 page Manual of Procedures, which contains everything your ever wanted to know about the CATT Study.

The only changes I noted from the original information I have provided are that enrollment is now scheduled to begin January 1st, and the number of clinical sites has been reduced to 44. The location of the 44 sites is not provided on the website (yet), but hopefully will be included soon.

In any event, I have a prior list of 45 sites which presumably contains all of the sites scheduled to participate. Anyone wishing to know what sites are participating in their states can email me and I will be happy to provide a list for that state. (My email link is shown in the sidebar.)