Direct link found between telomeres and heart attacks

A large scale study involving nearly 20,000 people in Denmark has confirmed that there is a direct link between the shortening of telomeres and the risk of a heart attack and early death.

The new research provides physicians with a future way to test the actual cellular health of a person. This was achieved by isolating each individual's DNA to analyse their specific telomere length, which is a measurement of cellular aging.

Clinical Professor of Genetic Epidemiology Borge Nordestgaard from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen said: "The risk of heart attack or early death is present whether your telomeres are shortened due to lifestyle or due to high age."

The test conclusion was clear: If the telomere length was short, the risk of heart attack and early death was increased by 50 and 25 per cent, respectively. Smoking and obesity were found to increase the risk of heart attacks because they are directly related to the shortening of the protective telomeres.

It is possible that doctors could use the study in the future to conduct simple blood tests to reveal a person's telomere length and thereby the cellular wear and age.

Posted by Ben Evans