The secret to everlasting youth is out! The prescription reads, “...experience circumstances not as a threat, but as a challenge. This way we get control over the way we age all the way down into our cells,” says Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel laureate and leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research.
Blackburn tells us that just as shoe laces have protective caps at the ends to keep them from fraying, our chromosomes too have protective non-coding DNA right at the ends. These are called telomeres. She says, “...every time a cell divides, all of its DNA has to be copied, all of the coding DNA inside of those chromosomes, because that carries the vital operating instructions that keep our cells in good working order...Every time the cell divides and the DNA is copied, some of that DNA from the ends gets worn down and shortened...some of that telomere DNA...and when that tip gets too short, it falls off, and that worn down telomere sends a signal to the cells.” The DNA is no longer being protected. “The signal reads, it is time to die...It turns out that as we humans age, our telomeres do shorten, and remarkably, that shortening is ageing us. Generally speaking, the longer your telomeres, the better off you are. It's the overshortening of telomeres that leads us to feel and see signs of ageing. My skin cells start to die and I start to see fine lines, wrinkles. Hair pigment cells die. You start to see gray. Immune system cells die...”
Blackburn found, “It was a previously undreamed of enzyme that could replenish, make longer, telomeres, and we named it telomerase.” Now, can we guzzle down telomerase to keep looking sweet sixteen? No, it can increase risks of some horrible cancers. The answer lies elsewhere.
Stress is bad
Blackburn reveals, “...several studies rapidly confirmed our initial finding that chronic stress is bad for telomeres. And now many are revealing that we have more control over this particular ageing process than any of us could ever have imagined...telomere maintenance capacity is improved by practicing a form of meditation for as little as 12 minutes a day for two months. Attitude matters. If you're habitually a negative thinker, you typically see a stressful situation with a threat stress response and your blood vessels constrict, and your level of the stress hormone cortisol creeps up, and then it stays up, and over time, that persistently high level of the cortisol actually damps down your telomerase. Not good for your telomeres...a habitual ‘bring it on’ attitude, helps your telomeres do just fine. You have power to change what is happening to your own telomeres.”
Blackburn also found a positive correlation between repairing telomeres and good and secure social environment and relationships.
In short, if you want to look young and live healthy for longer, take life as a challenge attracting positive vibes from people...
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Web link:
https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_blackburn_the_science_of_cells_that_never_get_old/
