Telomeres- something we must pay attention to!
Telomere are a tiny section of DNA at the end of each of your chromosomes. The telomere protects your chromosomes from “unraveling” and deteriorating. It is the genetic equivalent of the plastic tips on the ends of your shoelaces. But every time your cells divide, the telomere gets shorter and shorter. When it disappears, your cells stop dividing and death occurs…
The great news is that emerging evidence shows you have a lot of control over the rate at which the telomere shortens. Certain health conditions may triple the rate at which they shorten. Vitamin C, on the other hand, has been shown to slow down the rate by as much as 62%. Understanding this process – and the factors that can affect it – is vital to your health and longevity.
Your risk of heart attack increases the faster your telomeres break down. Scientists looked at people in perfect health . . . who later died from heart disease. They found the death rate from heart attack was three times higher for men whose telomeres got short the fastest. The death rate for women was 2.3 times higher. (2009)
100 year olds in good health had “significantly longer” telomeres than those with health problems. (2008)
People with shorter telomeres in their immune cells had twice the risk of death from heart failure as patients with the longest telomeres. The study, published in one of its key journals, looked at over 750 people with heart disease. The highest-risk group had telomeres half the length of the lowest-risk group. (2008)
Women with shorter telomeres are more likely to be overweight and insulin resistant. (2008)
One of its flagship journals published a potential link between telomere length and colon cancer. (2006)
People with short telomeres are more likely to suffer from weaker immune systems and greater heart disease risk. (2004)