Research performed on thirty prostate cancer patients by a team of doctors led by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn has shown that changing your diet, along with excercising and reducing stress levels, can prevent cell ageing and consequently, increase your life span.

Blackburn, who is famous for having discovered the proteins that control the longevity of dividing cells-called telomeres-opposite Dr. Dean Ornish, a cardiologist who proposed diet control and exercise as a method to prevent deaths due to heart disease, published their findings in the British journal Lancet Oncology. The study team looked at the levels of the telomerase enzyme in the prostate tissue of 30 patients who had accepted to undergo a low-fat diet and exercise moderately and, after three months of keeping them under observation, they revealed the results. Of the 30 patients, 24 showed significant increase in their levels of telomerase, which indicated that the enzyme was in the process of being restored.

Dr. Blackburn’s principal associate, molecular biologist Jue Lin, stated that studies to prove there is a link between human stress and the ageing of cells had been performed before, but to no cogent results.

The telomerase enzyme, often called the „immortalizing enzyme”, was discovered by Blackburn and her colleagues Carol W. Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak back in 1984. It contains condensed DNA material, thus rendering chromosomes more stable and also allowing short bits of DNA that would otherwise be lost during mitosis to be replaced. Consequently, the enzyme plays a huge role in preventing the premature ageing of cells in the human body.