Telomeres, Diet and Human Disease

The maintenance of telomeres—repetitive sequences at the end of chromosome—is essential to health. Dysfunction in telomere maintenance pathways plays a role in aging, cancer, atherosclerosis and other diseases. This has led to telomere maintenance as a prime target for patient therapies. This book describes the advances in telomere research as it applies to human health and especially how lifestyle and dietary factors could modify the telomerase maintenance process. The book examines the mechanisms involved, the primary of which are oxidative stress and the role of sirtuins, and how they can be modified by dietary patterns such as Mediterranean diet.