The winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine-American scientists Elizabeth Blackburn, carol greider and Jack Istak-confirmed that telomere and telomerase play a key role in protecting cell chromosomes. Telomere is a special nucleic acid structure at the chromosome end of eukaryotic cells, which consists of many simple DNA repeats and telomere binding proteins. The repetitive sequence of human telomere DNA is TTAGGG, with a total length of about 5 ~ 15kb. The function of telomere is to protect the ends of chromosomes, prevent exonuclease degradation of nucleic acids and fusion between chromosomes, and maintain the stability and integrity of chromosome structure. Due to the loss of terminal sequence during DNA replication, the telomere length of normal human cells is shortened by 50 ~ 200 bp on average with each cell division. When cultured normal cells are passaged for 40 ~ 60 times and telomeres are shortened to a critical level (2 ~ 4kb), they will lose the ability to protect chromosome ends, leading to chromosome degeneration and dissolution, cell loss of division ability and aging and apoptosis. Therefore, telomere is called the "biological clock" of cell division and aging.

Thus, if we can reduce the average telomere length lost in each cell division, we can maximize the number of cell passages, maximize cell life and maximize aging. The results of modern scientific research suggest some effective measures to protect telomerase, which is helpful to health care practice.

1. Some traditional Chinese medicines and prescriptions for tonifying kidney, such as Herba Epimedii and Jinkui Shenqi Pill, can maintain the stability of telomerase and reduce the telomere length lost by cell division.

2. Moderate exercise can prolong the telomere length. Professor Lin Tiansen from the University of Washington, USA, found that people who exercise for 100 minutes a week are 5-6 years younger than those who don't exercise, and those who exercise for 3 hours are 9 years younger. These sports include playing tennis, swimming and running.

3. The life of husband and wife is not harmonious. The more divorces and marriages, the shorter life expectancy. On the one hand, most of these people have mental depression, on the other hand, they have kidney deficiency, both of which will obviously shorten the telomere length of cells.

Smoking will shorten the length of telomeres. The Houston Cancer Research Center found that the longer you smoke, the faster telomeres shorten, the higher the incidence of lung cancer and the shorter your life expectancy.

5. Hyperlipidemia will consume the telomere length of cells. Researchers from the University of Leicester and the University of Glasgow in England followed up 1542 hyperlipidemia patients aged 45-64. It was found that the telomeres of these patients were twice as short as those of normal people. Statins seem to reduce telomere consumption and maintain telomere length.

According to the above research results, we can easily find that as long as we develop good living habits, maintain an optimistic mental state, exercise reasonably and eat scientifically in our daily life, we can control telomere terminal loss and delay aging.