Featured Image Credit: YouTube/The Action Junkeez Podcast/David Abbasi MD
Topics: Boxing, Celebrity, Health, Social Media, Sport, UFC, YouTube, Dana White
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Boxing, Celebrity, Health, Social Media, Sport, UFC, YouTube, Dana White
A doctor has spoken out about the results of UFC President Dana White's genetic testing.
The 53-year-old underwent a series of medical health tests after getting in touch with a human biologist.
White was told by the health professional the results allegedly showed he only had 10.4 years to live unless he made some serious changes to his lifestyle.
Dr David Abbasi MD has since dived into how the DNA tests revealed information about White's life expectancy and what you can do to add years back onto your life.
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Dr Abbasi - double board certified in orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine, as well as a ringside physician for professional UFC/ MMA and boxing events - took to YouTube to explain the process behind the DNA testing White underwent.
The doctor said: "What they're looking at is the blood in the DNA. So our DNA is basically a repeated unit of basic building blocks.
"And all of our DNA sits within these chromosomes. [...] When we're born they're a certain length, and as we continue to age, because all of our cells continue to divide, they actually get shorter and shorter and shorter because the ends of the chromosomes start to shorten. The ends of the chromosomes have these structures called telomeres.
"So telomeres will actually shorten as we get older and what scientists have stared to notice was people are getting older in age, the telomeres are shorter and people closer to death have much shorter telomeres than people that are more youthful, [...] or healthier. So they can look at the comparison [...] and basically start to predict when someone is going to die or how old they are."
But what can cause your telomeres to shorten?
As well as simply growing older, an unhealthy lifestyle can 'accelerate the rate of the telomeres shortening'.
"So things like smoking, eating unhealthy diets, obesity and actually people who have respiratory diseases [...] we see in studies they actually have shorter telomeres and they age quicker and unfortunately pass away quicker," Dr Abbasi continued.
While White's telomere length led him to allegedly receive a 10.4 year life expectancy, thankfully, there are ways to combat your telomeres shrinking and add more years onto your life.
"The two major ones are people that fast, people who are very strict with their diets and have long periods of fasting. [...] For some reason, those mice in the studies or humans seem to live longer," Dr Abbasi said.
"The other one is people who have a higher VO2 max. Essentially that is a respiratory test for people that have good respiratory or lung function, so that would also apply to people high in exercise, working out [...] doing a lot of cardio, people who can hold their breath for a long time."
He also said you can also make improvements to your diet and drink coffee - not that we even need to be asked to do that one.