4 ms·

Large New Survey Tracks Telomere Length and Mortality

38 points by sjcsjc 12y ago

sjcsjc 12y ago
tl;dr - "Last week, a Danish study was published that tracked 65,000 people over 15 years. The bottom line was that telomere length robustly predicts longevity, even after factoring out the effect of age, smoking, exercise, blood cholesterol, BMI, and alcohol consumption." Mitteldorf argues that short telomeres are not just a marker but a major cause of mortality, and discusses the hypothesis that short telomeres protect against cancer (a theory he doesn't subscribe to).
cymetica 12y ago
It's also interesting to note how we can affect the length of our Telomeres via Telomerase and FOXO3 genes using micronutrients such as Vitamin D, magnesium as described here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNLNl7oJnM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNLNl7oJnM This is being worked on by companies in the epigenetics and human life extension areas: http://calicolabs.com http://calicolabs.com (Google and Genentech) http://genopharmix.com http://genopharmix.com (Berkeley Lab) http://sens.org http://sens.org (Aubrey De Grey & Peter Theil)
ddmf 12y ago
Now we need some kind of study to see if telomere length causes changes in palm line patterns... ;)
dbcooper 12y ago
It seems that the blog post author doesn't actually link to the new paper he discusses, nor provide a citation.
- sjcsjc 12y ago
  http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/6/djv074.short http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/6/djv074.short I'd guess it was an oversight. He linked to it in his previous weekly post.
  - sjcsjc 12y ago
    He's fixed it now.
mrfusion 12y ago
Is telomere length something that's relatively easy to increase with future medications? Or is it nearly impossible to get something into all your cells and get them lengthening the telomeres? (ignoring cancer risk, just curious about a potential process)
mrfusion 12y ago
Why can't we test these ideas in mice or drosophila and get a better idea about the effects?
- craigwblake 12y ago
  From another of the author's articles: In limited studies with mice, telomerase enhancers have led to rejuvenation. http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/telomerase-as-a-fountain-of-youth/ http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/telomerase-as-a-founta...
throwaway12357 12y ago
For me the most interesting conclusion (from the blog author) was that telomere-lengthening treatments may only give you an extra 5 years. But he does point out that this conclusion may be incorrect since the data measurement may need some changes.

38 points by sjcsjc 12y ago

tl;dr - "Last week, a Danish study was published that tracked 65,000 people over 15 years. The bottom line was that telomere length robustly predicts longevity, even after factoring out the effect of age, smoking, exercise, blood cholesterol, BMI, and alcohol consumption." Mitteldorf argues that short telomeres are not just a marker but a major cause of mortality, and discusses the hypothesis that short telomeres protect against cancer (a theory he doesn't subscribe to).

cymetica 12y ago

It's also interesting to note how we can affect the length of our Telomeres via Telomerase and FOXO3 genes using micronutrients such as Vitamin D, magnesium as described here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNLNl7oJnM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNLNl7oJnM This is being worked on by companies in the epigenetics and human life extension areas: http://calicolabs.com http://calicolabs.com (Google and Genentech) http://genopharmix.com http://genopharmix.com (Berkeley Lab) http://sens.org http://sens.org (Aubrey De Grey & Peter Theil)

ddmf 12y ago

Now we need some kind of study to see if telomere length causes changes in palm line patterns... ;)

dbcooper 12y ago

It seems that the blog post author doesn't actually link to the new paper he discusses, nor provide a citation.

sjcsjc 12y ago
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/6/djv074.short http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/6/djv074.short I'd guess it was an oversight. He linked to it in his previous weekly post.
- sjcsjc 12y ago
  He's fixed it now.

mrfusion 12y ago

Is telomere length something that's relatively easy to increase with future medications? Or is it nearly impossible to get something into all your cells and get them lengthening the telomeres? (ignoring cancer risk, just curious about a potential process)

mrfusion 12y ago

Why can't we test these ideas in mice or drosophila and get a better idea about the effects?

craigwblake 12y ago
From another of the author's articles: In limited studies with mice, telomerase enhancers have led to rejuvenation. http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/telomerase-as-a-fountain-of-youth/ http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/telomerase-as-a-founta...

throwaway12357 12y ago

For me the most interesting conclusion (from the blog author) was that telomere-lengthening treatments may only give you an extra 5 years. But he does point out that this conclusion may be incorrect since the data measurement may need some changes.