If you’re at all interested in maintaining your longevity efforts (as we are), you may have heard that short telomeres are a sign of biological aging, and therefore having longer telomeres is a sign of living longer. These little chromosomal caps help protect our DNA from damage, and measuring how fast they break down over time can give us an accurate prediction of life span.

While we don’t really know if telomere shortening is the cause of death or just a byproduct of it, one thing is certain: telomere length is actually related to biological aging. And, as it turns out, longer telomeres are also associated with a reduced risk of dementia.