The elixir of youth has always been a topic that many pseudo-scientists dabble in while an entire industry has grown around anti-aging products, cosmetics and foods. Proper research in many different fields including medicine, nutrition, exercise and other areas has increased the life span of humans but their are still many factors that remain out of our control. Some enterprising company’s are now trying to change one of these unknowns into a consumer product that will allow people to find out how long they have left to live after taking a simple blood test. The science behind the blood test exists and scientists are now compiling data that could make the results of the test useful because we have the ability to change the results.
Currently doctors measure bio-markers like cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure to use as signal about a persons health and longevity. Another test that may soon become common is telomeres length. The structure is found in our DNA and protects the chromosomes found in cells. As cells divide, which they do continuously, the length of these telomerese start to shorten. At a certain point the telomerese become short enough were the risk of disease start to increase. Research has shown the relations between telomere length and many different diseases including heart disease and cancer.
Research is starting to indicate the longer telomeres point at longer healthier lives. In 1985, Elizabeth Blackburn, made an important discovery of an enzyme called telomerese. The biological researcher discovery helped increase the length of telomeres which current data shows have a correlation with longer life.
Recently several company’s have been developed that create services to test consumers telomeres. Blackburn has also co-founded a firm named Telome Health. Dr. Elissa Epel, a co-founder of Telome Health and a UCSF associate professor of psychiatry, spoke at a FutureMed event in Singularity University. She stated that, “Just one blood draw around mid-life is predictive of diseases of aging.” Epel also thinks that the test could be used to predict the response of patients to drugs and claims that, “It’s potentially a marker for how people do in treatment. It may be helpful for medical decisions.”
There are critics including molecular biologist and 2009 Nobel Prize winner Carol Greider. She stated to the New York Times in 2011 that “A given telomere length can be from a 20-year-old or a 70-year-old … You could send me a DNA sample and I couldn’t tell you how old that person is.” Her point does hold weight since she won the Nobel price along with Blackburn for their work on telomeres.
However company’s like Telome Health are now building up data about telomeres to figure out what are normal lengths for the structure during different points of human life.
Once telomere length is found to be shorter than the norm, it can be changed. According to Epel, “Telomere length is modifiable … it’s really sensitive to the way we live.” She goes on to say that smoking, stress, and trauma can shorten the length of a telomere while antioxidants, exercising and meditation can increase their length. However, researchers are still not sure of exactly how much effect all these points have on telomere length.
Epel and others will continue to research and gather more data about the microscopic structure and by 2015 she thinks that the telomere length will be used as a good indicator of health.
Source: FastCoExist
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