Mothers with highest folate levels had newborns with telomeres 10% longer & every 10ng/ml increase in folate was linked to 5.8% increase in telomeres.

Telomere length is a biomarker for the aging because they get shorter every year. However, this study suggests that maternal nutrition may actually play a role in determining the length of telomeres that we have to start with. There’s clearly more to this topic than meets the eye… looking forward to (hopefully) doing a podcast with an expert on telomere research soon! Folate is required to make precursors for the DNA nucleotide, thymine, and for methyl groups, which play a role in epigenetics. Leafy greens are high in folate so eat your spinach!