tl;dr - "Last week, a Danish study was published that tracked 65,000 people over 15 years. The bottom line was that telomere length robustly predicts longevity

tl;dr - "Last week, a Danish study was published that tracked 65,000 people over 15 years. The bottom line was that telomere length robustly predicts longevity, even after factoring out the effect of age, smoking, exercise, blood cholesterol, BMI, and alcohol consumption." Mitteldorf argues that short telomeres are not just a marker but a major cause of mortality, and discusses the hypothesis that short telomeres protect against cancer (a theory he doesn't subscribe to).