What are telomeres and can I keep them longer?
Keeping telomeres longer sounds appealing, but more telomerase or longer telomeres also carry risks, because cancer cells use the same mechanism. Specific lifestyle interventions have not yet been convincingly proven, so be critical of supplements or tests that claim otherwise.
Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, the structures that carry your genetic material. They prevent the cell from mistaking the end of a chromosome for a damaged section of DNA. Without that protection, your genetic material would erode with every cell division.
Every time a cell divides, the telomeres become a little shorter. Under normal circumstances, most cells in your body lack an active enzyme to replenish them, so telomeres shrink over the years. Once they become too short, the cell stops dividing. This is one of the mechanisms behind biological ageing. Shorter telomeres are associated with a higher risk of age-related diseases and premature death. In people with an inherited condition that disrupts telomere maintenance, this is painfully apparent: they age faster and face a greater risk of organ failure.
Can you keep telomeres longer? In theory, yes: the enzyme telomerase replenishes telomeres and is active in cells that need to divide frequently, such as stem cells. But more telomerase is not automatically better. Cancer cells exploit precisely this mechanism to become immortal, and genetic variations that promote telomere maintenance increase the risk of certain types of cancer. Telomere lengthening in the wrong context is therefore dangerous.
Environmental factors throughout your life also influence telomere length, but which factors matter and how strongly cannot be reliably determined from the available studies. Specific lifestyle recommendations (sleep, diet, exercise) are not supported by concrete figures or interventions in the source literature.
As a measure of biological age, telomeres are for now less reliable than other methods. Long-term research confirming their value as a personal biomarker is still lacking. Do not be tempted by commercial telomere tests that claim to measure your biological age accurately.
The structure and basic function of telomeres are robustly documented. The association with disease and mortality is probably causal but is largely based on observational data and inherited conditions. The cancer risk associated with greater telomere maintenance is mixed and at least partly supported by causal evidence. The value of telomere length as a biomarker for ageing has been studied only to a limited extent.