Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes

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Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes: study

 

By Will Dunham

Mon Jun 16, 9:21 PM ET

 

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 rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and

soy products, 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.

 

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Xavier Briand)

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