Can Telomeres Slow The Aging Process?
What are Telomeres?
Each strand of DNA within your body contains tiny protective ends called telomeres. During chromosome replication, a small section of the telomeres are cut off, because the enzyme responsible for the duplication can not to go to the ends of each chromosome. In short, telomeres are essentially expendable DNA strands that protect the other genes from being cut during replication.
What the researchers have found, is that the length of telomere is directly related to the aging process. This indicates that the longer the telomeres the better it is for longevity as well as your health.
Over time with each cell division, the telomere ends become shorter and shorter until eventually the telomeres are no longer present to protect the genes during replication. At that point, the DNA can’t be copied anymore and the cells no longer replicate.
Obviously this process doesn’t happen overnight, instead it occurs slowly over the course of a person’s life. Doctors have found that there are many illnesses and diseases that are associated with shortened telomeres, so improving the length of your telomeres is one way to maintain and prolong optimal health.
How Can You Preserve Telomeres?
Although shortening of telomeres does occurs with aging, there are certain things that you can do to preserve the length of your telomeres to slow the effects of aging process. Here are few effective tips:
Stay Lean,
-Shin
Each strand of DNA within your body contains tiny protective ends called telomeres. During chromosome replication, a small section of the telomeres are cut off, because the enzyme responsible for the duplication can not to go to the ends of each chromosome. In short, telomeres are essentially expendable DNA strands that protect the other genes from being cut during replication.
What the researchers have found, is that the length of telomere is directly related to the aging process. This indicates that the longer the telomeres the better it is for longevity as well as your health.
Over time with each cell division, the telomere ends become shorter and shorter until eventually the telomeres are no longer present to protect the genes during replication. At that point, the DNA can’t be copied anymore and the cells no longer replicate.
Obviously this process doesn’t happen overnight, instead it occurs slowly over the course of a person’s life. Doctors have found that there are many illnesses and diseases that are associated with shortened telomeres, so improving the length of your telomeres is one way to maintain and prolong optimal health.
How Can You Preserve Telomeres?
Although shortening of telomeres does occurs with aging, there are certain things that you can do to preserve the length of your telomeres to slow the effects of aging process. Here are few effective tips:
- Maintaining a lean body weight helps preserve your telomeres. Studies have found that obesity leads to shorter telomeres, even in young children.
- Having a stable blood sugar level, has been shown to help preserve the length of telomeres. Doctors have found that people with diabetes have shorter telomeres than people with healthier blood sugar levels. Lowering your carb intake, especially refined sugar, will lower your insulin levels and help manage your blood sugar better.
- Along with keeping your physical body in shape, keeping your mind in shape preserves your telomeres. Studies have found that longer telomeres are associated with maintaining better memory and less cognitive decline as you age.
- Taking better oral care will help preserve the length of your telomeres. Your teeth and gums are the gateway to your body, so it’s not surprising to find the people with gum disease have shorter telomeres.
- Studies found that eating a diet high in omega 3 fatty acids helped protect telomeres. The best sources of omega 3 fatty acids come from fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel and anchovies. And if you’re not into eating fish you can obtain it from high quality supplements.
- Studies have found that diet high in folic acid (Vitamin B9) also help preserve your telomeres. Foods high in folic acid are vegetables like spinach, asparagus and broccoli. Also legumes are very high in folic acid as well.
- Several large scale studies discovered that doing shorter more
vigorous exercises is the best form of exercise to preserve the length
of telomeres. It was also found that people that participated in long duration, cardio intensive of activities had abnormally short telomeres.
We know that doing long cardio is not effective at burning fat. In fact it’s been shown to increase fat for some people. But now there’s evidence that it can actually accelerate your aging process as well, by shortening the telomeres!
Another study involving 2,401 twins found that physical activity was strongly associated with the length of telomeres. The study established that people participating in shorter intense exercises had longer telomere length compared to people who did no exercise or who exercise for too long.
Stay Lean,
-Shin
1.
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