Healthy iron levels – a key to longevity?
People age at different rates. The biological age of a Person should reflect this difference between the lived life and the actual condition of the body. In the case of many diseases such as heart disease, dementia and cancer increases the risk with increasing biological age. An international study has revealed that maintaining a healthy iron level in the blood delaying the biological aging and, therefore, the key to a longer life could be.
Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for biology of ageing, identified genes associated with ageing. The Team was, why people age at different rates. The international study, the genetic data of more than a Million people were evaluated, suggests that maintaining a healthy iron level plays a Central role in the ageing process. The results of the study were recently presented in the prestigious scientific journal “Nature Communications”.
Iron in the blood, affects risks for age-related diseases
On the basis of the so-called Mendel’rule randomization, a statistical method of analysis is made clear by the researchers that genes involved in iron metabolism, may play a major role in healthy aging. The iron content in the blood, in turn, is significantly influenced by the diet. Both extremely high as well as very low Iron levels in the blood are associated with age-related ailments, such as Parkinson’s disease, liver disease and a high susceptibility to infections.
Drugs to slow aging?
The results could accelerate the development of drugs to reduce age-related disease to extend healthy life years and to increase the chances to live disease-free into old age, stress the researchers. The Team localized the ten regions of the genome associated with a long life-span, health-span and longevity together. With iron connected gen-sets were under-represented among the genes more frequently than the average.
The researchers believe that it is possible to influence with active ingredients of iron metabolism in such a way that the aging process slows down. Until then, further research in the field are necessary. In the meantime, you should install the regular iron-rich foods in the diet, such as, for example,
- Soy beans,
- Lenses,
- White Beans,
- Chickpeas,
- Tofu,
- Pumpkin seeds,
- Pine nuts,
- Wheat bran,
- and millet flakes.
(vb)