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Wrinkles. Check.
Gray hair, creaky bones and joints, and weak muscles. Check, check, and check.
Did you know that not only do your skin, bones, and body age, but the cells in your body age as well?
That’s right, it’s not just the outside that matters, but what is on the inside may matter even more.
You see, inside your body, attached to the end of your cells, you have structures (called telomeres) which are made of proteins, and they lengthen or shorten depending on the current status of things inside your body.
In fact, research shows that when your telomeres shorten, they stop replicating (making more of themselves), which may cause your cells to age.
One reason for shortening telomeres: a poor ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids.
Omega-6 fatty acids, which are plentiful in Western-type diets, may increase levels of inflammation and oxidative stress.
Now this environment (high inflammation and oxidative stress) is linked to a shortening of your telomeres, which could speed up aging in your cells.
And if your cells age, then what happens next?
According to a new study published in Brain, Behaviors, and Immunity, this study could show how beneficial omega-3 fatty acids are at preventing premature aging – especially when talking about aging of your cells.
Let me explain…
Fatty Acids Ratio and Faster Cellular Aging
Cellular aging, which could be caused by shortening telomere length, occurs in your body due to a hostile internal environment that encourages this shortening.
Due to the activity of a specialized enzyme, telomerase, this may shorten your telomere arms, which are located at the end of your cells.
Current studies have shown that oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory cytokines (like the kind that are released from fat cells) may contribute to a shortening of your telomeres.
As you may know, Western diets are notorious for a high ratio of omega-6 fatty acids compared to omega-3 fatty acids,
And this altered ratio may increase oxidative stress and inflammation, which could lead one to believe that this may be detrimental to your telomere health, mostly the length.
The authors of this study have already determined, through a randomized controlled trial, that omega-3 fatty acids were able to lower pro-inflammatory molecules as well as oxidative stress in your body.
In this new study, they wanted to assess whether omega-3 fatty acid supplementation could also affect telomere length, enzyme activity, and oxidative stress in your body.
They performed a double-blind, four-month trial on 106 middle-aged, sedentary, and overweight adults.
They used a placebo (mimicking the fatty acid profile commonly found in Western diets) or one of two doses of omega-3 fatty acids (2.5g/day and 1.5g/day).
The data they got was nothing short of amazing!
They found that supplementation with both doses of omega-3 fatty acids significantly decreased oxidative stress and inflammation compared to the placebo group.
If you are wondering by how much, it was a whopping 15 percent!
Their data also suggested that by decreasing the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (more omega-3s than omega-6s) resulted in an INCREASE in the length of the telomeres.
From their data, they concluded that lowering the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids had a direct impact on cellular aging.
Plus, they concluded that inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune cell aging are important pre-disease markers and may be improved through nutritional interventions and strategies.
Although exciting, this study still needs other studies to back up their findings. However, it does provide a strong argument for altering the omega-6/omega-3 ratio to further improve cellular health and potentially slowing cellular aging.
Slow Down Cellular Aging
The health of your cells, specifically your telomeres, could impact how fast your body ages.
The telomeres, which are proteins attached at the end of your cells, have been shown to shorten when exposed to oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory cytokines (cause inflammation).
Western diets, which are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, have been shown in research to increase both oxidative stress and inflammation, which could shorten telomere length, which could speed up cellular aging.
However, according to this study, omega-3 fatty acid supplementation, may reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammation, plus alter the omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio, which may lead to increasing the length of your telomeres.
A dose as little as 1.5g/day to 2.5g/day of omega-3 fatty acids may alter your fatty acids ratio, therefore slowing down cellular aging, and improving the health of the cells in your body.
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