I know a lot of amazing people in the telomere field. I have been honored to meet, speak and learn from all of them. But my favorite, as you may already know, is a young lady named Maria Blasco. I like Maria best for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is she “gets it” when it comes to the purpose of her telomere research. She may eventually become very wealthy because a drug company may come along and buy her inventions and discoveries. She may become famous because of her work and may even get the Noble Prize one day. She is certainly revered in her home country of Spain, because of her work and her role as the Director of the Spanish National Cancer Institute. And I am personally eternally grateful for the many hours of her time she spent with me, both in person and on the phone, because of my intellectual curiosity and of course the current book on the topic I am writing.
But, the reason she does what she does is because she is not afraid to extend the healthspan, lifespan, and quality of life of human beings – like you and me. She gets it! So many times people lose track of that simple fact. Scientists, doctors, healers of any kind need to be reminded: the end point of your work is the betterment of humanity!
I know Maria knows this.
On March 22nd an SHA seminar about anti-aging entitled “The keys to a long healthy life” included renowned scientists like Dr. Maria Blasco Marhuenda, Dr. Gloria Sabater and Dr. Vicente Mera, discussed about the latest advances in telomere and telomerase research and its application in areas such as rejuvenation, anti-aging for a life extension and cancer prevention.
Obviously telomeres were the topic of discussion, but if you don’t know what a telomere is: Telomeres are the ends of chromosomes, DNA coding regions whose length determines the biological age of our cells and how long our cells can live. Furthermore, our biological age can ONLY be measured by an analysis HT Q-FISH test www.adltests.com, in the U.S. This is the only test that gives both average and percent of short telomeres, which allows for a determination of your biologic age. Chronologic age is how many birthdays you’ve counted. Biologic Age is how old your metabolism and cells actually are, or how old your body really is.
You can decrease the loss of the telomere segment by lifestyle modifications and some supplements like Fish Oil and Co Q10 (ubiquinol not ubiquinone!). But, you can only lengthen the critically short telomeres that determine your true biologic age by using TA-65. At that conference, Dr. Blasco certified that there are some food supplements such as TA-65 that activate telomerase and contribute to natural rejuvenation and life extension without causing cancer.
What is said here is as important as what is not said. Where are the other so-called Telomerase Activators in the speech?
HMMMM!
Here’s to long telomeres!
Dr Dave