Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes: study 6-16-08

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.

The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet vegan diet rich in fruits and vegetables, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.

As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements. But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes.

After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes -- including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off.

The activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research was led by Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and a well-known author advocating lifestyle changes to improve health.

"It's an exciting finding because so often people say, 'Oh, it's all in my genes, what can I do?' Well, it turns out you may be able to do a lot," Ornish, who is also affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview.

"'In just three months, I can change hundreds of my genes simply by changing what I eat and how I live?' That's pretty exciting," Ornish said. "The implications of our study are not limited to men with prostate cancer."

Ornish said the men avoided conventional medical treatment for prostate cancer for reasons separate from the study. But in making that decision, they allowed the researchers to look at biopsies in people with cancer before and after lifestyle changes.

"It gave us the opportunity to have an ethical reason for doing repeat biopsies in just a three-month period because they needed that anyway to look at their clinical changes (in their prostate cancer)," Ornish said.

Study available at: http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml (blue area)

Comment:

This is the exact lifestyle requirements from the study:

Lifestyle Intervention. A 3-month comprehensive lifestyle modification was prescribed
(13, 14), comprising a 3-day intensive residential retreat, followed by an
outpatient phase where participants were in weekly telephone contact with a study
nurse. Lifestyle modifications included a low-fat (10% of calories from fat), whole foods,
plant-based diet, stress management 60 min per day (gentle yoga-based
stretching, breathing, meditation, imagery, and progressive relaxation), moderate
aerobic exercise (walking 30 min per day for 6 days per week), and a 1-h group
support session per week. The diet was supplemented with soy(1daily serving of tofu
plus 58 g of a fortified soy protein powdered beverage), fish oil (3 g daily), vitamin E
(100 units daily), selenium (200 mg daily), and vitamin C (2 g daily). Participants were
provided with all of their food during the intervention period. A registered dietitian,
exercise physiologist, clinical psychologist, nurse, and stress management instructor
were available for education and counseling.

The participant were eating a regular American Diet when they were switched to a vegan one. Soy was used to supplement the loss of meat. I never recommend this. Longer term studies would show this causes oestrogen dependant cancers, and thyroid problems.

This is very encouraging to all of us. Any changes you make for the good help as you get new blood cells every 90 days.