Healthy Recipes 360

Archive for the ‘Aging’ Category

Telomeres are structures on the ends of chromosomes which determine how many times a cell can divide. Each time a cell divides, a little bit of the telomeres are shaved off. The more times a cell divides, the shorter the telomeres become. The longer the telomeres, the more times a cell can divide. Thus, it is important to understand what factors affect telomere length.

The length of the telomeres are directly related to aging and health. Shorter telomeres have been linked with higher mortality along with increased risk of some chronic diseases. Factors like diet, stress, vitamins, etc. can be important.

A recent clinical study conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health has shown that the length of telomeres were affected by the use of multivitamins. The study was reported online on March 11, 2009 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study was done on a group of 586 women between the ages of 35 and 74 and showed that daily users of multivitamins had, on average, 5.1 percent longer telomeres compared with nonusers.