Many of you may wonder how to extend life with telomeres. Well, initially we must know that these biomarkers of aging are the fundamental part of the controlling and regulating mechanism of cell viability, which translates into the mirror that tells how people get older.

Therefore, we will explain what the procedure consists of in order to make these structures of DNA and proteins located at the ends of the chromosomes manage to keep themselves for longer to fulfil their protective function against the processes of fusion or degradation of cells.

ADN Telómeros Cromosomas

This degradation that causes aging takes place when the imperfect process of cellular replication is carried out and due to the fact that the chromosomal endings cannot be replicated, telomeres start to cut out until they reach a very short length, thus stopping the division until the cells die.

But significant advances have been made in the study of telomeres, which have led scientists such as Hermann Muller and Barbara McClintock in the decade of the 30s of the twentieth century, to conduct various investigations, which have been the subject of other studies and have made possible the publication of more than 21,000 scientific articles, 4 Nobel Prizes and many important findings.

Subsequently, in an effort to find a way to extend life with telomeres, doctors Calvin Harley and Carol Greider discovered the relationship between these structures and aging, while doctors Blackburn, Greider and Szostak demonstrated the role that telomerase enzyme plays in the aging process, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

In this way, telomeres represent biomarkers for human aging that would help assess the potential risks of developing some diseases associated with age such as cardiovascular problems, diabetes and cancer, among others.

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However, also some aspects about aging must be clarified because it does not affect all individuals equally, some people manage to maintain good health until advanced ages, while others begin to suffer from diseases from childhood or a very young age, evidencing the existence of dynamic, complex and interactive factors that affect this process such as genetic inheritance, lifestyle and environmental factors.

In accordance with Stephen J. Matlin (2017) “to maintain telomere length, it is necessary to move forward in research that associates the function of the enzyme “telomerase”, the effects of environmental and people’s lifestyle factors, taking into account that apparently the degradation and shortening of the length of telomeres is influenced by negative health habits such as smoking, excessive consumption, stress, and improper feeding that generates obesity, sedentary lifestyle, among others”.

Likewise, it has been scientifically proven that positive health habits such as following a Mediterranean diet, eating foods that provide the necessary nutrients and vitamins, consuming Omega-3, and performing physical activity, may decrease the shortening percentages of these structures, and consequently it could slow down aging and extend life.

100 Años Longevidad

That is why currently many doctors and researchers are interested in demonstrating that it is necessary to incorporate telomere tests in their practices so that a greater understanding of the medical society is generated about the function, the role that they would fulfill in the personalized medicine, and the increase of the demand of the people in relation to the integrative treatments that manage to delay aging and the appearance of diseases of the age.

It is important to highlight the fact that currently private companies have emerged that offer the service of measuring the percentage of short telomeres in individual cells, as indicated Stephen J. Matlin (2017), who argues that it is applied an own technology known by the name of TAT®, from the acronym in English “Telomere Analysis Technology”®, which translated into Spanish means “technology for the analysis of telomeres”.

This is a test performed through a blood test by which the length of thousands of individual structures is measured in order to establish the cellular or biological age of a person, which does not necessarily have to coincide with the chronological age of each individual since they influence, as said before, a series of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. In addition, this blood test reveals more information of interest because, you can know the general health status of the individual, as well as the possible development of chronic diseases and related to the aging process.

Therefore, we are in the presence of very important scientific contributions that before seemed to be taken from a science fiction film and that today represent the hope of the human being to live longer and in better conditions, although there are many interests of powerful sources which do not care that this information is widespread and reach everyone.

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