How should people regard supplements or other products that purport to increase telomere length and extend life?
At present, there is no scientific evidence showing that any supplement or nutritional factor can reliably increase the length of telomeres. Until such evidence is produced, I think people should be wary of such supplements and products. Bottom Line/Health interviewed Carol Greider, PhD, the Daniel Nathans Professor and director of molecular biology and genetics in the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and one of the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that maintains the length and integrity of chromosome ends.
