Slowing Down Telomere Loss with Fish oil – Just a Little Too Convenient!

ta-65-and-bonus_256Life is kinda funny at times.  A few years back I was motoring along minding my own business on the internet doing the fish oil, telomere and anti-aging thing I’ve always done and no one seemed to care much.

Now all of a sudden entering my 12th year I seem to be getting people’s attention again.

Now it would be expected that it is not all good but here are a few rather humorous examples of why I don’t even bother to defend myself any more.

1)      In the past few months I have been accused of being a “Johnny come lately” in the telomere field.

2)      An individual who basically attacked my stance on TA-65 2 years ago resurfaced and “demanded” the same information I gave him then. Either he forgot or he enjoys being angry at me.

3)      A well known anti-aging doctor told a close friend of mine “He is right now but he was wrong then” referring to the fact that the studies and proof he wanted from our book The Immortality Edge were published after the book was published. Why do people always think that a published study happens overnight?  It never seems to occur that the findings may be known by a select group of people in the field before the general public.  Or maybe it just infuriates them that someone gets it before them.

The best thing I can say to that is to quote Mel Brooks from “The History of the World Part 1”.

It’s good to be the king!

The most recent example of what seems to be a growing infuriation with my track record of knowing things first is this comment which applies to the information I am about to tell you.

4)      A scientific colleague of mine who I occasionally bounce my writing off of wrote back after she read the information below and said, “Oh come on now! Fish oil and telomeres again!  That is just a little too convenient! You just wrote a bunch of telomere blogs. Do you pay these people to do the research and give it to you?!”

So I can assure you and her, I do not pay anyone to generate positive press about fish oil. The series of recent anti-fish oil attacks masquerading as science  should convince you of that!

As a matter of fact I do not know most of the people who publish these papers pro or con. I certainly have no idea given the vagaries of scientific publication when anything is going to come out.

I do know this: The wheels of science move slowly- and the wheels of scientific publication move even more slowly. Getting something from study to published article can take several years. This is why I hang out with the people doing the work. Sometimes I can share the facts with you on a very early basis as long as I do not damage the publication with too many specifics.

And while I am at it I may as well tell you that right now as we speak I know things that will not come out as published for at least 1 year even though they have already been peer reviewed. I can also tell you that thanks to some of my readers active participation on our contest I was able to fulfill a promise and fund launch my own studies (with a little help from the same friends from above!).

It’s good to have loyal readers and people who benefit from using my stuff!

So today I want to share an article with you that WAS published. It was published by people I do not know and I did not get any advanced notice.

This study was small like most “supplement” studies. In this study people over 65 with mild cognitive impairment were treated with 3 grams of fish oil for 6 months and compared to those receiving what would be representative of a typical American diet enriched with omega 6 fats. Remember these were the same inflammatory fats that The NCI researchers told us we should eat more of in the infamous “fish oil linked to prostate cancer” nonsense.

The researchers concluded: Telomeric shortening may be attenuated by n-3 PUFA supplementation*

OK just so you know n-3 PUFA’s are the same as fish oil. The 3 gram dose was only half of what I recommend and I think that there would have been an even greater difference had they used a level of fish oil supplementation that would have led to an even better Omega3 to Omega 6 ratio.

Also note the omega 6 people lost more telomere length!

Finally almost 4 years ago Nobel Laureate Liz Blackburn and Dr Farzaneh-Farr showed that higher doses of Omega 3 supplementation led to longer telomeres in heart patients.

Now we have at least 3 human trials that show omega 3 fats slow down the loss of telomeres. Where have you heard that before? Hint: RIGHT HERE IN THESE BLOGS AND MY NEWSLETTERS!

Now you know why I consider my Ultra 85 and TA-65 a perfect combination for telomere health.

I think you know by now my continued and serious research and endorsement of these things is more than just “convenient”.  But it sure is convenient to grow biologically younger as we count more birthdays!

Dr Dave

*As is now a requirement they also said, “more studies are needed”.  I couldn’t agree more!

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Citations:

Telomere shortening in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment may be attenuated with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation: A randomised controlled pilot study

  • Nathan O’Callaghan1, , ,
  • Natalie Parletta2,
  • Catherine M. Milte2,
  • Bianca Benassi-Evans1,
  • Michael Fenech1,
  • Peter RC. Howe2, 3
  • 1 Preventative Health Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Adelaide
  • 2 Nutritional Physiology Research Centre and Sansom Institute for Health Research, School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia

Brain Behav Immun. 2013 Feb;28:16-24. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2012.09.004. Epub 2012 Sep 23.

Omega-3 fatty acids, oxidative stress, and leukocyte telomere length: A randomized controlled trial.

Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Epel ES, Belury MA, Andridge R, Lin J, Glaser R, Malarkey WB, Hwang BS, Blackburn E.

JAMA. 2010 Jan 20;303(3):250-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2009.2008.

Association of marine omega-3 fatty acid levels with telomeric aging in patients with coronary heart disease.

Farzaneh-Far RLin JEpel ESHarris WSBlackburn EHWhooley MA.

Source

Division of Cardiology, Room 5G1, San Francisco General Hospital, 1001 Potrero Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

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