Seen At 11: Are Your Cells Aging You Faster Than The Calendar? There May Be A Simple Way To Find Out

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- We all know people who seem to be young or old for their age. It turns out their might be a biological reason for that.

Now, there might even be a way to tell whether you and your cells are aging faster than your birthdays.

As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, we all know how old we are in years, but could our bodies actually be aging faster or slower than the calendar?

There's a simple way to find out -- by measuring the length of a critical part of our chromosomes.

Telomeres are stretches of DNA at the end of your chromosomes. They protect the end of your chromosomes and are very important.

As we age our cells are constantly dividing, and with each cell division, those telomeres get progressively shorter.

Studies have linked short telomeres to heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. Some researchers claim telomere length is a good way to tell the true biological age of our cells.

Now, an at home test kit will actually measure the length of your telomoeres, and tell you the rate at which your cells are supposedly aging.

CBS2's Dr. Gomez gave it a try.

The kit came in the mail with very specific instructions on how to prick a finger and take a drop of blood before sending it to the lab for testing.

"It's sort of like a consumer fitness tracker for your own DNS that gives you feedback on how well you're doing," Jason Shelton, Telomere Diagnostics said.

The test came back a few weeks later, and found that Dr. Gomez's age in telo-years is three years younger than his calendar age.

Scientists in the field of aging said the predictive health value of telomere length is still controversial.

The results come with suggestions on how to slow your telomere shortening through healthy lifestyle changes, but experts remain dubious.

"It's a gimmick," said Dr. Jay Olshanksy.

Dr. Olshanksy, a public health expert with the American Federation for Aging Research, said the jury is still out on the link between telomere length and disease.

"Unfortunately a direct link to aging and longevity is simply not there for people and we can't really use the information that comes from it," he said.

In fact, having long telomeres is also a health risk.

"In cancer telomeres are very long, so the telomeres have to be just right," Dr. Olshanksy said.

It's what some researchers called the 'telomere Goldilocks zone' not too short, not too long.

CBS2 had the test kit sent to a New Jersey address, because this test is legal in every state except New York and Maryland.