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I agree Maria Blasco has achieved amazing things with telomerase induction and we are hopeful this will translate to the human model.

Observational studies show that exercise, nutritional supplements and reducing psychological stress can help. Chronic high stress and smoking can lead to accelerated telomere shortening.

We still don't know what evolutionary significance to attach to it, but it is at the very least interesting that a telomere gene is related to obesity.

Work by Maria Blasco, Calvin Harley, Michael Fossel, Woodring Wright and Shay and Ronald Depinho in particular are of interest but there are literally thousands of articles relating to telomerase, telomeres and the biology behind it.

We believe that such a significant increase in longevity is due to the protective effect against cancer produced by caloric restriction - incidences fall by 40 percent if we compare them with the mice that produce more telomerase and have a normal diet - and, added to the presence of longer telomeres, this makes the mice live longer and better.

We and other groups are seeing clear statistical links between telomere shortness and risk for a variety of diseases that are becoming very common, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers.

We know that people who are born with shorter telomeres than normal also have a shorter lifespan. We know that shorter telomeres can cause a shorter lifespan.

It will be useful for you to know your biological age and maybe to change your lifestyle habits if you find you have short telomeres.

Medicine has been successful by treating diseases in a very specific way once the damage is done. But telomere length integrates a lot of factors together and gives you an overall picture of risk for what is now emerging as a lot of diseases that tend to occur together, such as diabetes and heart disease.

We see that mice that undergo caloric restriction show a lower telomere shortening rate than those fed with a normal diet. These mice therefore have longer telomeres as adults, as well as lower rates of chromosome anomalies.