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The latest news from the OHIS
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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
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Basic research
Observational studies
Literature review
Methods
Summary
Telomere length (TL) is considered one of the most reliable biomarkers of aging. These structures protect our genome from deterioration and its length decreases with aging. Shorter TL are associated with a poorer life expectancy and vice versa. Some lifestyle factors, such as diet, can contribute to preserve TL and therefore, increase life expectancy. In this review, 5 studies on the Mediterranean Diet (MD) (which is characterized by a high content of olive oil) with different populations and backgrounds were analyzed. The first study with 217 Italian elders showed statistically longer telomeres in those participants with better adherence to MD compared with lower adherence to MD. Similar results were obtained in a sample of 4,676 women from the Nurses’ Health Study in the United States. A cross-sectional study with 1,743 participants concluded that a higher adherence to MD was associated with longer TL in Caucasians, however, these results were not applicable to African Americans nor Hispanics. Furthermore, the PREDIMED study obtained similar conclusions, but only for women. Lastly, another similar intervention carried out with 679 Australian elders did not find any association between TL and MD.
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Focusing on type 2 diabetes (T2D), this review found that the risk of T2D among those participants with the highest adherence to MD was 19% lower than those with the lowest adherence. Furthermore, the incidence of gestational diabetes in pregnant women closely following the MD was lower compared with those with poor adherence. There is also evidence that the MD is effective to maintain good levels of plasma glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR in a normoglycemic Greek population. Also, 4 meta-analyses concluded that MD had more beneficial effect on HbA1c than other diets (mainly low-fat diets).
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MD also has benefits on mental health, specifically in cognitive disfunction, as showed in this review. Currently, only the MD has evidence supported by randomized clinical trials (RCT) related with cognition. Some of these RCT found that DM supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil improved cognitive function in the short term and gross global cognition in the long term. These results were obtained in healthy as well as participants at high risk of cardiovascular disease, which suggests that this beneficial effect is mediated through a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.
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Finally, the PREDIMED study evaluated the effect of an intervention with MD and the incidence of T2D and cardiovascular disease (CVD) using 2-aminoadipic acid (2-AAA) and pipecolic acid. These two metabolites are produced in the lysine degradation pathway, associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome and, therefore, are useful to predict the risk of T2D. After analyzing the interaction between MD and possible changes in metabolites, they concluded that this dietary intervention could possibly decrease the risk for CVD in those subjects with low baseline levels of lysine. This association was not statistically significant for 2-AAA and pipecolic acid. However, authors consider that the MD may regulate other biological mechanisms different from lysine pathways, that lead to the development of T2D and CVD.
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Thanks!
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