Stay Thin and Stay Away From Cigarettes. They may speed up the
aging of your cells. An excellent anti-aging strategy may be
staying thin and staying away from cigarettes, concluded new
research.* Among more than 1,100 women studied, the white blood
cells of those who were obese or smoked were “older” than those
of normal-weight and nonsmoking women. The age of a cell is
indicated by the length of its telemores, which are the
sequences of DNA strands at the tips of chromosomes. Every time
a cell divides, its telemores shorten, and the shorter the
telemores, the older the cell, summarized the authors, a team of
British and American scientists from St. Thomas’ Hospital in
London and the University of Medicine of New Jersey. Among the
1,122 women ages 18 to 76 studied, telomere length fell steadily
with age, as expected, the scientists found. But further
analysis showed that among the 119 women who were obese,
telomeres were significantly shorter than lean women of the same
age. “The difference between being lean