NIH Telomeres, in white, are structures at the tips of chromosomes (in blue).
Aging is largely your chromosomes' fault. That's what Nobel-prize winning biologist Elizabeth Blackburn discovered when she started exploring the world of the invisible, threadlike cellular strands that carry our genetic code.
"It's the over-shortening of telomeres that leads us to feel and see signs of aging," Blackburn said in an April 2017 TED talk. "It sends a signal. Time to die."
Here are a few things Blackburn suggests anyone can do to keep their telomeres long. While these tips won't make you live forever, they can help with your "health span" - the number of years a person lives happily, and disease-free.