It took only two months, some lifestyle changes and clever supplement use for six women to turn back their biological clocks an average of 4.6 years.
Published in the journal Aging, the study’s half-dozen participants ranged from 46 to 65 years old. They engaged in a “methylation-supportive diet” as part of their eight-week lifestyle programs. Researchers theorized the secret to biological age reversal had to do with a chemical reaction that affects how DNA functions, also known as methylation.
The test subjects ate the following foods daily:
- 2 cups dark, leafy greens
- 2 cups cruciferous vegetables
- 3 cups colorful vegetables
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- 1 to 2 beets
- Liver or liver supplement (three 3-ounce servings per week)
- 1 serving of egg (5-10 per week)
They also consumed two daily servings of foods considered high in “epinutrients,” which are those nutrients believed to improve DNA methylation.
- ½ cup berries, preferably wild
- 2 medium garlic cloves
- 2 cups green tea, brewed 10 minutes
- 3 cups oolong tea, brewed 10 minutes
- ½ teaspoon rosemary
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
The subjects also drank eight cups of water each day, exercised regularly, slept a minimum of seven hours each night, fasted for 12 hours after their last meal of the day and took probiotic capsules. The average biological age reduction was 4.6 years, but one participant removed 11.01 years and another experienced a reduction of less than 1.25 years.
“The findings of this case series add to the existing evidence suggesting that widely-accessible, cost-effective dietary and lifestyle interventions, that are designed to support DNA methylation and are widely considered to be safe, may be able to reduce measures of biological aging and have the potential to impact health span, life span, and the economic burden of aging,” the study reported.
According to the researchers, turning back the clock on biological age is an important step toward helping the U.S. health care system.
“Six in 10 adults in the United States have at least one chronic disease and four in 10 adults have two or more,” the study said. “These diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality and they put a significant burden on the health care system as well as the society at large. Aging itself has been identified as a common driver of chronic diseases and an important target for extending human health span. It has also been estimated that if we improve our collective health span by just one year the calculated savings are worth $38 trillion, and if by 10 years those savings jump to $367 trillion”
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