Research Perspective|Volume 8, Issue 1|pp 12—15

Nutrition and lifestyle in healthy aging: the telomerase challenge

Virginia Boccardi¹, Giuseppe Paolisso², Patrizia Mecocci¹

¹Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
²Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Aging and Metabolic Sciences, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Received: October 5, 2015Accepted: January 20, 2016Published: January 30, 2016

Copyright: © 2016 Boccardi et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Nutrition and lifestyle, known to modulate aging process and age-related diseases, might also affect telomerase activity. Short and dysfunctional telomeres rather than average telomere length are associated with longevity in animal models, and their rescue by telomerase maybe sufficient to restore cell and organismal viability. Improving telomerase activation in stem cells and potentially in other cells by diet and lifestyle interventions may represent an intriguing way to promote health-span in humans.