If you’re a regular reader, you’ve heard me talk about telomeres.
The discovery of these “caps” at the end of your chromosomes led to a Nobel Prize in Medicine and revolutionized our understanding of how and why we age.
But because telomere biology is an emerging science, there are researchers who suggest the telomere is merely an “end point” that signals the end of life when the telomere burns down to the end and cell division stops.
I believe the telomere has a more powerful, more commanding role in how we live day-to-day and year-to-year.
Playing the role “control switch” in your cells, the telomere serves as the “director” of the unfolding drama we call life. This control switch determines how old your cells act, what they’re capable of, and what their true potential is at EVERY moment of your life.
Like a movie director, the telomere tells the cell what to look like, how to move and what to say. It literally gives your cells a complete set of instructions, like a script or screenplay, based on what act and scene of your “life movie” you’re currently acting in.
And those instructions can change quickly if there’s a rapid loss of the telomere.
Today I’ll show you how that happens, and how you can influence the instructions your telomeres give your cells… so your body starts creating younger cells.
Here’s how it works.
Short telomeres create cells that are older, weaker and less able to fend off the threats you experience in your environment. That’s how you’reprogrammed to age. As you get older, you go into a tailspin and start to look and act more and more like an “old person.”
You develop back pain, you don’t have the energy to do anything, your skin wrinkles, your eyesight diminishes and you appear older and more distant to your family.
On the surface, it seems “natural.” But the key here is realizing that the accelerated loss of your telomeres creates an “older” more decrepit version of yourself.
It’s also important to realize that your condition – which we call “aging” – can be fully reversed if your telomeres were to be lengthened.
In that case, you would see yourself transform into a younger, happier, more energetic version of yourself.
It all depends on where you put that control switch.
When telomeres burn quickly, the control switch moves into an older-acting part of your genome. And when you keep longer telomeres, the control switch stays in a younger-acting part of your genome.
This “programmed death” in your cells is part of a larger, ongoing program that started running – like a movie – the day you were conceived.
But today we know we can influence the director of this movie… Here’s one you can try right now.
It’s a potent amino acid, called N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), a building block of your body’s primary antioxidant called glutathione (GSH). It has the ability to prevent the death of cells by protecting your telomeres.
Just one of the many examples of how NAC protects your cells is in your inner ear. Our military now treats soldiers with NAC during training to protect them from blast noise from gunfire and explosions.1
In fact, one study looked at military officers after shooting practice. The guns are incredibly loud. A roaring jet engine from a plane taking off a few feet above your head would be about 120 decibels. These officers were hearing gunfire that was up to 160 decibels.
After the noise exposure, one group took NAC and one got no treatment. The NAC group had much better hearing. Not only that, but the unprotected group had damage to the inner ear structure that’s responsible for turning sound into nerve impulses so your brain can make sense of it. But the NAC group stayed completely normal and totally protected.2
To protect telomeres and your cells, I recommend a dose of 1,800 mg to 2,400 mg a day. NAC is available at your local nutrition and/or health food stores.
1. Ewert D, Lu J, Li W, Du X, Floyd R, Kopke R. “Antioxidant treatment reduces blast-induced cochlear damage and hearing loss.” Hear Res. 2012 Mar;285(1-2):29-39.
2. Lindblad A, Rosenhall U, Olofsson A, Hagerman B. “The efficacy of N-acetylcysteine to protect the human cochlea from subclinical hearing loss…” Noise Health. 2011 Nov-Dec;13(55):392-401.