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Mediterranean diet and leukocyte telomere length in a multi-ethnic elderly population

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Abstract

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is considered as the marker of biological aging and may be related to environmental factors. The current study aimed to examine the relation between Mediterranean-type diet and LTL. We used a cross-sectional study of 1743 multi-ethnic community residents of New York aged 65 years or older. Mediterranean-type diet (MeDi) was calculated from dietary information collected using a food frequency questionnaire. LTL was measured from leukocyte DNA using a real-time PCR method to measure T/S ratio, the ratio of telomere (T) to single-copy gene (S) sequence. Regression analysis showed that the MeDi score was not associated with LTL in the overall study population (β = 12.5; p = 0.32) after adjusting for age, sex, education, ethnicity, caloric intake, smoking, and physical and leisure activities. However, we found a significant association between MeDi and LTL among non-Hispanic whites (β = 48.3; p = 0.05), and the results held after excluding dementia subjects (β = 49.6; p = 0.05). We further found that, in the whole population, vegetable and cereal consumption above the sex-specific population median was associated with longer LTL (β = 89.1, p = 0.04) and shorter LTL (β = −93.5; p = 0.03), respectively. Among non-Hispanic whites, intake of meat or dairy below sex-specific population medians was associated with longer LTL (β = 154.7, p = 0.05; β = 240.5, p < 0.001, respectively). We found that higher adherence to a MeDi was associated with longer LTL among whites but not among African Americans and Hispanics. Additionally, a diet high in vegetables but low in cereal, meat, and dairy might be associated with longer LTL among healthy elderly.

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Abbreviations

CRP:

C-reactive protein

BHS:

Bogalusa Heart Study

FHS:

Family Heart Study

LA:

Leisure activity

LTL:

Leukocyte telomere length

MeDi:

Mediterranean-type diet

MESA:

Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

NHS:

Nurses’ Health Study

PA:

Physical activity

PLCO:

Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian

SFFQ:

Semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire

WHICAP:

Washington Heights-Inwood Community Aging Project

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association grant IIRG08-92010 and NIH grants P01AG07232, R01AG037212, R01AG028506, P60MD000206, and K99AG042483.

Conflict of interest

The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, 622 W 168th St., P&S #16, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Yian Gu, Lawrence S. Honig, Nicole Schupf, Joseph H. Lee, Yaakov Stern & Nikolaos Scarmeas

  2. The Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Lawrence S. Honig, Nicole Schupf, Joseph H. Lee, Yaakov Stern & Nikolaos Scarmeas

  3. The Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Lawrence S. Honig, Yaakov Stern & Nikolaos Scarmeas

  4. The Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Nicole Schupf

  5. The Division of Epidemiology, Joseph P. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Nicole Schupf, Joseph H. Lee & Jose A. Luchsinger

  6. The Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Jose A. Luchsinger

  7. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece

    Nikolaos Scarmeas

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  1. Yian Gu
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  2. Lawrence S. Honig
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  3. Nicole Schupf
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nikolaos Scarmeas.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

eTable 1

Demographic characteristics among ethnic groups. (DOC 67 kb)

eTable 2

Association between the Nine Food Components of Mediterranean Diet and Telomere Length by gender. (DOC 61 kb)

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Gu, Y., Honig, L.S., Schupf, N. et al. Mediterranean diet and leukocyte telomere length in a multi-ethnic elderly population. AGE 37, 24 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-015-9758-0

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