Anti-ageing – Increase your telomere length to live longer

Telomeres are the caps at the end of each DNA strand that protect our chromosomes. Think of a telomere as the plastic end cap that you get on the end of shoe laces. These caps prevent the shoe lace from getting frayed and damaged. Teloemeres protect our DNA in the same way.

The natural process of ageing results in a reduction in telomere length, and eventually telomere length will get so short that cell damage will occur. Cell damage results in age related degradation of the body. Ageing is synonymous with wrinkles, hair thinning, weakness, bone density, eyesight reduction, loss of hearing and all the other ailments that go with it. Worse, as cell damage increases, illness, disease and cancer will take hold and destroy the body from within.

Telomere length is associated with health and fitness because longer telomeres mean less cell damage, less age related degradation and less disease. It's therefore essential to prevent telomere damage, and perhaps even increase telomere length, to push back old age, reduce the likelihood of disease and maintain a youthful vitality in your later years.

Telomere damage is accelerated by unhealthy pursuits such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs, smoking, lack of sleep, stress, eating unhealthy foods and a sedentary lifestyle, so its reasonable to assume that you will live longer by pursuing a healthy lifestyle.

What specifically can you do though to increase your telomere length?

7 strategies to increase telomere length and push back old age

1. Exercise – research has proven that people who exercise 3 or 4 times a week have longer telomeres. Some research shows that athletes who regularly run long distances tend to have longer telomeres, but long steady state cardio can create other problems, particularly in men. High Intensity Interval training might be a much better alternative. Moderate to low exercise such as walking or light jogging is not effective in preventing telomere damage so you're going to have to put some effort in, build a sweat up and get yourself out of breath. More info here: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/highintensity-workouts-could-slow-down-your-aging-by-almost-a-decade/
   

2. Stress reduction – Stress is highly damaging on the body. It creates a flood of fight or flight hormones that our body should only need in emergencies. But people who are continually stressed have these hormones being produced in their bodies all the time. This leads to free radical damage to cells and premature ageing. Stress is one of the most consistent predictors of short telomere length so it must be one of the highest priorities to reduce it. More here: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/chronic-stress.aspx
   You can reduce stress through deep breathing, being aware of negative thoughts and changing them to empowering thoughts, taking mental breaks and focusing on leisure activities, laughing and talking to someone who is able to understand and help you manage stress.

3. Sleep – Enough sleep, generally about 7 hours, will help your telomeres to rebuild or at least maintain length. Ensure your sleep hygiene is good to give you the best chance of sleeping well and try not to oversleep. More here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3902878/.Good sleep hygiene includes relaxing before bed time, avoiding too much screen time (or at least installing a blue light filter on screens in the evenings), ensure the room is as dark as possible (black out curtains can help), keeping electronic devices in your bedroom to a minimum, reducing alcohol and caffeine consumption within 6 hours of bed time, keeping a comfortable bed with a new mattress, fresh clean sheets and new pillows and also getting to bed at the right time. There are strategies to help you get to sleep more quickly if you struggle with that, such as lying still for as long as you can, until it becomes uncomfortable to do so, and then moving to a more comfortable position when you will often fall asleep quickly. Breathing deeply will also help you fall asleep more quickly.
   

4. What to eat and what not to eat – Avoid processed meat and other processed foods and increase your intake of colourful organic raw fruit and vegetables is pretty generic and obvious advice. Ensuring that you are eating the right fats, rather than trying to reduce fat altogether can help. While telomere length is associated with low fat diets, recent research demonstrates that we should be eating enough of the right kind of fat to maintain health. Cutting out sugar and chemical additives will also help. More here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26975532.
   

5. Intermittent Fasting – Calorific restriction in the form of intermittent fasting appearst to show impressive results in reducing the effects of ageing and even reversing age related degradation. Fasting is easy and enjoyable once you get used it it. Start by cutting out breakfast, then when you are used to it cut out lunch and push your dinner back until you've completed 24 hours. Once or twice a week of doing this should suffice. Avoid anything calorific, just drink water, black coffee or black tea (no sugar) during a fast. More here: https://agingdefeated.com/why-fasting-may-be-the-key-to-a-long-healthy-life/

6. Supplements – B vitamins and folate appear to have benefits that maintain telomere length because they metabolise the molecules that make up DNA. Vitamin D is essential, especially if you live in the northern hemisphere during the winter months. Vitamin C will also help, but most supplements are not a complete vitamin C, they are generally made up of acetic acid. Eat plenty of vitamin C high foods such as oranges, blueberries, bell peppers, kale, brocolli, papaya, kiwi fruit, mango, strawberries and tomatoes etc. Liposomal vitamin C might also be an alternative to high street vitamin C supplements and research seems to suggest that it is beneficial. More here: http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/2016/12/Research-Update/Page-01
   

7. Some other approaches might include supplementing with CoQ 10, eating non-pasturised fermented vegetables with pro-biotics (home made sauerkraut is an easy way to do this), green tea, turmeric and avoiding environmental damage from chemicals in toiletry products, chemical cleaning products and other chemicals. Try to use natural organic alternatives wherever possible, such as bicarbonate, lemon juice and vinegar for cleaning, and natural products for hygiene.