In their book The Telomere Effect, published in 2017, Elissa Epel and Elizabeth Blackburn give evidence that, by living a healthy lifestyle such as regular exercise, eating a nutritious diet, managing stress, and sleeping well, we are able to assist in reducing the rate at which telomeres shorten within our bodies, working to hinder the onset of any age-related diseases and therefore increase our lifespan.
How to Look After Telomeres
As suggested in the book The Telomere Effect, we don’t have to leave the health of our telomeres entirely to chance. While many genetic disorders are caused by mutations before we’re born, we can do plenty to keep our cells healthy and rejuvenating for the rest of our lives. Here are some tips you can use to ensure you’re giving your telomeres good reason to delay shortening.
- Keep your BMI in a healthy range – obesity puts a lot of additional strain on your body
- Exercise regularly – even just a walk 20 minutes a day is better than taking no exercise at all (one study even found ) that men in their 50s who ran regularly had telomeres the length of men in their 20s, while sedentary men had 40% shorter telomeres)
- Manage stress – those who have suffered chronic stress have been seen to have shorter telomeres than their peers
- Prioritize your nutrition – eat antioxidant-rich foods such as fruit and vegetables, and try to eat whole grains when you can instead of other complex carbohydrates. If you can’t get everything you need from your diet alone, use supplements to ensure you’re getting a full range of vitamins and minerals. Our telomere health-focused supplement Telos95 ® contains clinically proven nutrients to help you do this.
Prioritizing the health of our telomeres is one of, if not the key thing we should be doing if we want to live long, healthy, happy, and active lives!