Telomeres
I'll start this time with 2 simple questions:
How old are you? That's your chronological age.
How old do you feel? That's your biological age.
Why is it that some 60 year olds look 40 and some 40 year olds look 60. Have you ever looked at a friend who is the same chronological age as you and wondered why you (or they) look so much older than them (or you of them)?
Ageing is a highly complex process but yet research is now shining a light into our cells, in fact into the genetic heart of the cells themselves, our chromosomes. If you remember from your school biology, we each have 23 pairs of chromosomes in each of our cells (bar our reproductive cells - eggs and sperm - and a few others). Chromosomes are the packages that contain our DNA and it is our DNA that makes us who we are. This is where you will find telomeres - repeating sequences of DNA that live at the ends of your chromosomes. They act as a protector of the all important DNA material as our cells divide and replenish. These telomeres, which I always think of as similar to the little plastic protective endings on shoelaces (called aglets!), shorten with each cell division and help determine how fast your cells age and when they die, depending on how quickly they wear down. It turns out that these endings can actually lengthen and as a result, ageing can be accelerated or slowed and in some aspects actually reversed. This is a major reason why people age differently.
When telomeres shorten we begin to see the familiar signs of ageing, particularly in areas where cells need to reproduce often - skin, immune system, hair. Once the telomeres shrink beyond a critical threshold (there is a whole area of biology/mathematics that focuses on this) your cells lose their ability to reproduce and it signals the start of your end!
If your telomeres are short for your age then you may feel and look old for your age. However, all is not lost and whilst there is no secret sauce that enables immortality (Elixir-of-Youth), there are ways that you can positively impact your telomere length and thereby how old you look and feel. Telomeres don't just shorten with time - there are many lifestyle and environmental factors that accelerate the process:
Being overweight
Not exercising
Poor sleep
Stress
High calorie diets
High protein / low fibre diet
Exposure to pollution and toxins
Smoking
Alcohol
Body inflammation
The usual suspects in many ways. It also turns out that your gut health has a hugely significant role to play in healthy aging and telomeres - subject of my next post.
So, taking care of your telomeres encourages vibrant health at every stage of life and there are a number of actions we can all take:
Look after your gut bacteria (next post)
Enjoy a Mediterranean diet - fruits, vegetables, little red meat, olive oil
Find stress reduction techniques
Take exercise - cardio and strength
Try to get enough sleep every night - consistency is keep
Live away from traffic and noise (perhaps not so easy)
Embrace the outdoors - walk in the woods
Give blood (I'll come back to this one)
Ageing is multi-faceted and science is only beginning to really understand it. But the signs are good that the power is in our own hands to slow the clock down considerably.
