Description: Your parents may largely dictate how long you're going to live. And your mom appears to have most of the control over your "aging gene." Previous research has linked the length of telomeres -- the tips of chromosomes -- to disease and life span, say researchers. These structures become progressively shorter each time the cell divides, and it is thought that this shortening is one of the critical features of cellular aging and illness. One study showed people with heart disease had shorter telomeres, while other research showed telomere length was a predictor of death.