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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Another reason to tell kids to put that soda down ...
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2016-07-04 19:00:00
	Description:		Parents, the next time your child picks up a can of soda, tell them they're at risk of shortening their telomeres. These are the protective caps at the ends of our chromosomes and they affect how quickly our cells age. And when our telomeres are shortened, this puts us at risk of age-related maladies like heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Dr. Cindy Leung of the University of California, San Francisco, says that while their study surveyed healthy adults, it's also possible that soda consumption is associated with telomere shortening in kids. "We know that childhood is a really critical window for our telomeres to develop. If we're marketing sugary beverages to children and they're drinking them at such high levels, it could really put them on this accelerated aging trajectory before they even hit adolescence." The good news - Leung says that telomere shortening is reversible. "Drinking less sugary beverages would be one way to either halt or slow down their telomere shortening process. We should promote other health behaviors that would help to lengthen our telomeres."
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