The Anti-Aging Secret Inside Your Cells

As I have mentioned previously, the central dogma of molecular biology does not tell the whole story, in that genetic expression is substantially influenced by the environment. Now that we got that little review out of the way, I would like to turn our attention to telomeres. Just as with other major cellular components, telomeres are involved in producing our physical and emotional being. Telomeres are a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialized proteins found at the ends of linear chromosomes. Think of an aglet at the end of a shoelace. In most, if not all, telomeres function to protect the ends of chromosomal DNA from progressive degradation and ensure the integrity of linear chromosomes by preventing shortening and/or breaking the end of the chromosomes. Also, telomeres provide a physical platform for DNA replication. When DNA replicates instead of trying to replicate over the same sequence and potentially “fray the ends of the shoelace,” the telomere allows for replication to occur into the “aglet.” So even if a piece of the telomere came off, it would be OK because at least it’s not fraying the DNA signal itself. Such fraying of the ends of chromosomes is what scientists associate with again. Thus, the longer the telomere, the higher the survival effect.
Furthermore, telomeres function as a method of preventing the loss of protein-encoding information during gene replication. They are essentially our armor. Now I know you’re going to get depressed about how your stem cells will eventually divide and die. Fortunately, nature found a way around this concern. We identified a special enzyme called telomerase, whose function is to extend the telomere length. Thus, telomerase activity is the molecular equivalent of a fountain of youth because it restores telomere length, increasing the vitality and reproducibility of the cells. Telomerase activity has been shown to enhance health and extend life. That’s exciting news!
But there’s a catch; life experiences can stimulate or suppress telomerase activity. Such traumatic events as stressful prenatal development, childhood abuse, domestic violence, PTSD, nutritional disabilities, and a lack of love can inhibit telomerase activity; that’s a big deal. These factors contribute to the onset of disease and a shortened lifespan. In contrast, exercise, good nutrition, a positive outlook on life, living in happiness and gratitude, being in service, and experiencing love have demonstrated to enhance telomerase activity, literally the fountain of youth!
Therefore, we can consciously empower ourselves by actively embracing our telomerase. And yes, because I can’t repeat this enough factoring in all the wonderful research that has been done in the last decade: “it’s the environment, stupid!”. If you would like a bit more understanding of several of the molecular biology topics that have been covered in recent posts, please let me know! Leave a quick comment, and I would love to dive deeper into the cellular biology of how epigenetics influences our physical and emotional beings. Thank you so much for reading!