Monday, November 12, 2012

The Omega Fountain of Youth

By David Morris


Over the past years we've all heard of Omega 3. It's been shown that they do seem to improve your health especially those with heart disease. Not only that, Omega 3 oils have been shown to prevent heart disease too. Now, doctors and researchers don't know at the moment how Omega 3 oils do this. But a there's a recent study which may shed some light on this.

Turning back a cell's age

The researchers set out to discover the link connecting a health heart and omega 3 fats. To do this, they examined something called 'telomeres'. Telomeres are the coverings at each end of a strand of DNA, and the researchers were measuring how the length of telomeres changed.

According to researchers, telomere length is a good marker of how old a cell is, because as cells age, the telomeres become shorter. The shorter a cell's telomeres, the older the cell is. When the telomeres become too short to protect DNA from damage, the cell goes into a resting phase or dies and is then replaced by other cells

More omega-3 oils, younger cells?

This study took 608 people with a heart condition that was stable. The researchers simply measured the telomere length of the white blood cells for each of the study participants, once at the start of the study and then again and the end, which was five years later. The researchers also noted the levels omega-3 fats in the blood too.

The results of the study found that the subjects with the highest omega-3 fat levels at the start of the study had the slowest rate of telomere shortening over the five years. Whereas the telomere of the subjects with low levels of omega-3 oils, became shorter much more quickly.

The study conclusions indicate that omega-3 oils may be helpful in protecting cells from premature ageing, and could be a possible explanation as to why omega-3 oils are so beneficial for maintaining a healthy heart, even with those who have heart disease to start with. The researchers conclude that more studies are needed in this area.

Are you getting enough omega-3?

Did you know that these healthy Omega-3 oils, may also lower the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.

Super foods are an excellent source of Omega-3 oils, including spirulina, chia seeds, wheatgrass powder, bee pollen, barley grass powder. They're easy to add to your diet so you can make sure you're getting enough omega-3. Other food sources include walnuts, linseeds, olive and rape seed oil, and other nuts and seeds.




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