It’s the age-old question – how long have I got left to live?
And I guess while you’re asking, you might as well check out whether this time can be extended?
Well, the good news is, we finally have an answer to both of these questions. A thing called a telomere can tell you.
Where can you get one of these forecasting devices and how much do they cost, you ask? As it turns out, they’re absolutely free and you’re already the proud owner of trillions.
What are telomeres?
As you can see from the picture below, telomeres are tiny structures at the end of each of the 46 chromosomes that exist in each of our roughly 30 trillion body cells.
They’ve been likened to the plastic tip at the end of shoelaces and not just for the similar appearance. More importantly, they also prevent fraying and deterioration. They’re a cap that protects all of the critical genetic information within our chromosomes.
How telomeres tells our biological age?
Each time a cell in our body divides and replicates (which can be as frequently as daily), the telomeres within that cell are shortened. This means our telomeres are constantly getting shorter.
But there comes a point where they can’t get any shorter. We have a finite number of cell replications before our telomeres become completely worn down. And once they’re gone, they’re gone.
When that happens, no further cell divisions and replications are possible. We see this process and the final result as ageing, illness and death.
It explains the wrinkled skin, grey hair, and loss of hearing, sight and mobility that we associate with ageing. It’s also behind health issues like coronary heart disease, diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis.
In this regard, telomere length can be used as a biomarker of a cell’s biological age, and of its potential for future division and replication (i.e., its lifespan). Shorter telomeres indicate a higher biological age (maybe even older than chronological age) and fewer future cell divisions (a shorter remaining lifespan).
What can we do to lengthen our telomeres (and our time on earth)?
Although this is a relatively new and developing not to mention complex area of study, there are a few very simple things we can do to help slow our biological clock.
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Choose your parents wisely
Ok so this one’s not so simple but given that telomere length determines our lifespan and that the length of our telomeres is inherited, it’s certainly worth ensuring you’re endowed with some nice long telomeres to kick off your life.
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Maintain a healthy body weight
Obesity is associated with shorter telomeres compared with those of a healthy body weight with one study reporting an equivalent 8.8 year reduction in lifespan. Thankfully, weight loss has showed to lengthen telomeres.
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Eat a healthy diet
Load up on antioxidants from fruit and vegetables, fibre, and healthy fats from nuts, avocado and fish. And limit intake of saturated fats from animal products, protein (especially animal-based), refined sugar and carbohydrates, along with excess food in general. Basically the Mediterranean diet – it’s why they live so long.
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Engage in regular physical activity
Physical activity level and telomere length are correlated. In other words, active people have longer telomeres than their age-matched but inactive counterparts. Just regular moderate intensity exercise will do it.
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Avoid harmful toxins
Cigarette smoking accelerates telomere shortening in a dose-dependent manner (i.e., the more you smoke, the more rapidly your telomeres vanish). But the same can be said for all of the pollution we non-smokers inhale, such as traffic.
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Get some sleep
Sleep quality and duration are associated with telomere length – shorter telomeres in those who don’t catch enough ZZZ’s and longer telomeres in those who get good quality and duration sleep.
The big unknown
At this stage in the game, we can’t just walk off the street and get our telomeres checked. But even if we could, would we really want to? How long we’ve got left to live has always been a mystery and maybe it’s better that way.
Regardless, what we do know for sure is that our actions either speed up or slow down this process.
We’ve heard it all before. There’s nothing new in terms of the recommendations around diet, exercise and the like. But it’s powerful to understand the reason behind the recommendations – especially this new and exciting one.
So forget spending a fortune on age-defying potions and lotions. And stop worrying about ageing and dying.
Do something about ageing it at its source. Because to a certain extent, we can.
