A new study has found a healthy diet can promote healthy aging from the inside out.
Mbg health reported on a new study that can help you age healthily using epigenetics.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, epigenetics is “the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.”
These changes are reversible. Environmental and behavioral changes don’t change the DNA sequence itself, of course, but they can alter the way your body reads it.
Findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the DASH diet — Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension — can assist in these changes.
The DASH diet is promoted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for lowering blood pressure, and recommends eating vegetables, fruits, legumes, low fat-dairy products and whole grains. Foods high in saturated fats and sugars should be limited.
Researches evaluated data from 1,995 participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. They were mostly women and had an average age of 67. The team made cross-sectional associations between their DASH score and three markers of DNA methylation, which Mbg health explains is “a biochemical process that happens in the body all day, every day, and helps your body produce adequate levels of powerful antioxidants.”
Scientists conducted a mediation analysis to determine how epigenetic age acceleration’s mediation role connected to DASH and all-cause mortality.
The report noted that when you give your body missing nutrients and antioxidants, you have the potential to stabilize free radicals that can block the methylation cycle. That can lead to general health and promote longevity.
“Higher diet quality is associated with slower epigenetic age acceleration, which partially explains the beneficial effect of diet quality on the lifespan. Our findings emphasize that adopting a healthy diet is crucial for maintaining healthy aging,” researchers concluded.
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