The real secret to keeping your body young may be the tips of your shoelaces. Or, really, tiny parts of your body that act like them. Just as those plastic nibs keep your shoelaces from fraying, tiny cellular tips called telomeres protect your DNA from fraying when cells divide. When they’re tattered, they’re much harder to use. That’s what causes cells to stop dividing and growing and replenishing your body — which means more aging for you.
Telomeres made headlines this fall when three American scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering them and exploring their role in health and aging. It’s prize-worthy stuff: Shortened telomeres contribute to heart disease, diabetes, reduced immunity and possibly even brittle bones. In people over age 60, those with the shortest DNA tips have been shown to be three times more likely to die from heart disease and eight times more likely to die from an infectious disease than those with longer, “younger” telomeres. Shorter-than-usual telomeres also have been found in many cancers, including those of the pancreas, bone, prostate, bladder, lung, kidney, and head and neck.
