What Determines Your Cellular Lifespan?

Lifespan is limited at the cellular level in multicellular organisms by the number of cell divisions that are permitted before cells reach a critical shortening length of the telomere. The “telomere” is a rod-like device inside each cell that shortens with each cell division and which eventually reaches a critical shortening length causing terminal senescence where cells stop dividing. Human cells are restricted in this manner to about 45-55 cell divisions. This cell division limit is called the “Hayflick limit”, discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1961. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/antioxidants-cell-lifespan-john-colman)