Mayo Clinic
Could an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise be making you age faster? Researchers at Mayo Clinic believe there is a link between these modifiable lifestyle factors and the biological processes of aging.
In a recent
study, researchers demonstrated that a poor diet and lack of exercise
accelerated the onset of cellular senescence and, in turn, age-related
conditions in mice. Results appear today in Diabetes.
Senescent cells are cells that contribute to diseases and
conditions associated with age. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic Robert and
Arlene Kogod Center on Aging found that exercise prevents premature senescent
cell accumulation and protects against the damaging effects of an unhealthy
diet, including deficiencies in physical, heart, and metabolic function,
equivalent to diabetes.
"We think at both a biological level and a clinical level, poor nutrition choices and inactive lifestyles do accelerate aging," says Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., director of the Center on Aging's Healthy and Independent Living Program and senior author of the study.
"So now we've
shown this in very fine detail at a cellular level, and we can see it
clinically. And people need to remember that even though you don't have the
diagnosis of diabetes or the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease or the
diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease today when you're in midlife, the biology
underlying those processes is hard at work."
In the study, researchers introduced mice to either a normal,
healthy diet or a diet that they termed a "fast food diet" -- one
that was high in saturated fat and cholesterol, along with a sugar-sweetened
beverage. Mice on the fast food diet showed harmful changes in health
parameters, including body weight and composition, increasing their fat mass by
nearly 300 percent over the course of about four months.
The fat mass
accumulated largely in the midsection surrounding internal organs, an area that
is often linked to a number of diseases related to obesity.
While the harmful effects of the fast food diet were clear,
researchers found significant health improvements after introducing exercise.
Half the mice, including mice on both the healthy and unhealthy diets, were
given exercise wheels.
Mice that had been exposed to the fast food diet but
exercised showed suppression in body weight gain and fat mass accumulation, and
were protected against the accumulation of senescent cells. Mice on a normal
diet benefited from exercise as well.
"Some of us believe that aging is just something that
happens to all of us and it's just a predestined fate, and by the time I turn
65 or 70 or 80, I will have Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular disease and
osteoporosis," says Dr. LeBrasseur. "
And this clearly shows the
importance of modifiable factors so healthy diet, and even more so, just the
importance of regular physical activity. So that doesn't mean that we need to
be marathon runners, but we need to find ways to increase our habitual activity
levels to stay healthy and prevent processes that drive aging and aging-related
diseases."