If you’re at all interested in supporting your longevity efforts (like we are), you may have heard that having shorter telomeres is a sign of biological aging—and thus, having longer telomeres is a sign of living a longer life. These little chromosomal caps help protect our DNA from damage, and measuring the rate of their decay over time can give us an accurate prediction for life span. 

While we don’t quite know if telomere shortening is the cause of death or simply a byproduct of it, one thing is for certain—telomere length is, in fact, associated with biological aging. And as it turns out, having longer telomeres is linked to a reduced risk of dementia as well.