Most people figure they must be getting older based on how they feel and look. We wince at our first grey hair, deepening wrinkles, and shifting body fat. We huff and puff climbing the stairs, forget names, and occasionally leak fluids.
We relate to the line from a Leonard Cohen song, “I ache in the places where I used to play.”
Despite these concerns, there’s very little science behind our educated guesses on aging. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have access to one measurement that would let you know if you’re on the right track to a healthy longevity? If that measurement turned out to be good news, you could give yourself a pat on the back and keep up all the things you’re doing right. If not so good, how about some professional guidance to reverse a chilling trend.
I’ve written in the past about telomeres, the word derived from the Greek telos (end) and mere (part). Telomeres are essential components of every living cell and affect how we age. They are the caps at the end of each strand of our chromosomal chains of DNA, protecting the chromosome much like the plastic tip of a shoelace keeps the lace from fraying and less able to do its job.
Let’s do a little math. Each of your cells has 46 chromosomes, and with a telomere at each chromosomal end that means you have 92 telomeres in every cell. With 15 trillion cells in your body, you have 15 trillion x 92 telomeres. In other words, many!
Numbers like these offer us a better idea of the importance of telomeres, which shorten as we age. In the process, DNA chromosomal reproduction becomes less efficient.
This deterioration on a cellular level manifests as everything you know about getting old, from gray hair to creaky joints, from hearing loss to libido as distant memory. People whose telomeres are measurably shorter than normal for their age group are more prone to chronic illnesses of all kinds and generally decline into an earlier death.
Two reasons for shortened telomeres
