For good aging, sleep and eat healthy food “

Australian Elizabeth Helen Blackburn Received in 2009, along with Carol W. Gridder And Jack W Szostakhe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to discover it TelomeraseIt is an enzyme involved in cellular aging and cancer processes. This protein protects chromosomes from damage associated with cell division, but also helps cancer cells multiply and continually invade new tissue.

Biochemist from the University of California, San Francisco (USA), in an interview with the agency efestates that for Take care of the telomeres You have to do those things moms say, like Sleep well and eat healthy.

Telomeres are special DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes, like the “tip of a shoelace,” that shrink over the years, says the Nobel Prize winner in a remote interview.

Numerous investigations indicate that the shorter the telomeres, the greater the likelihood of developing diseases usually associated with age, such as cardiovascular and lung diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis or dementia in the future.

Will having the right number of telomeres in the right cells solve all your problems, will you get old? No, this is not true of course.Elizabeth Helen Blackburn

The size of telomeres “kind of signs”but not the only reason for the development of the disease, which depends on A combination of factorssays Blackburn, who recalls “the enormous complexity of the human body and mind.”

“Will having the right number of telomeres in the right cells solve all your problems of never getting old? No, of course it’s not true, there are other things to do with it, but telomeres are one thing that can be measured.”

It is the reasons that can shorten the suffering Chronic anxiety, although it is mainly about “how we respond” to it, how we manage it. This stress can come from many sources and social situations that are “out of people’s control” such as financial difficulties.

Studies in the United States show that poor neighborhood quality, based on factors such as severity, lack of green space, low-quality housing, and pollution is “quantitatively associated with shorter telomeres”.

Having too much telomerase may increase the risk of some cells becoming cancerous

“We must be aware that social policies can have effects on people’s stress and, in turn, on their telomeres,” adds Noble. Other research suggests that abuse or neglect experienced in childhood is linked to a shorter length of these structures in adulthood.

You might think that preserving long telomeres would always be a good thing, but he cautions against it Too much telomerase (the enzyme that repairs them) “May increase the risk of some cells becoming cancerous.”

He explains that what cancer cells do is reproduce, they don’t stop, and for this they need to maintain their telomeres long enough to protect their chromosomes.

“I hope we can take a pill that will increase our telomeres sufficiently and safely, but at the moment it is a dream very far from reality,” the scientist assures.

Maintain balance

The best way to take care of them is a “healthy lifestyle”. a healthy foodexercise, sleep well, stop smoking, have a good attitude towards stress, get social support, in short, all those things we like to say: Your mom already told you».

Blackburn stresses, at various points in the conversation, the importance of balance in life and this is one of them. “Neither too much nor too little,” he defends.

Exercise without overdoing it

You have to exercise, but without overdoing it because “you can stress your body so much that it actually destroys your cells”, it is not necessary to eat “an expensive diet with only the best”, it is about “getting a good balance of things”.