How shortened telomeres heighten risk of serious lung disease

In 2017, Cindy Sutherland caught a nasty cold she couldn’t shake. After coughing nonstop for weeks, she went to urgent care and got a chest X-ray. When the doctor shared the results with her, he asked, “Have you ever heard of pulmonary fibrosis?” Cindy started to cry because she knew what those words meant. Her grandmother had died of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 62. Her mother had died of it at 58, and her sister at 48.