Ok you’ve seen me beat up on the QPCR as a tool for accurate assessment of telomere length in the recent Ornish study. To my mind that was the absolute worst use of that technology and it invalidates much of what the authors concluded primarily because the study was so small and did not correlate …
A recent study out of Italy links statin drugs to increased telomerase activity and slower shortening of telomeres. If you read my blogs you know this is not the first time such an association has been found. Back in March of this year I reviewed another article predicting we would see more of this. And …
Statins and Human Aging- Big Pharma Jumps on Board? Read More »
I am not sure how many times I’ve said that longer telomeres protect against cancer. Probably almost as many times as I’ve had to refute someone saying “telomerase causes cancer therefore TA-65 might cause cancer.” Back in December 2010 JAMA a very drug centric Big Pharma supported journal published a study that associated short telomere …
The following questions were sent in concerning telomeres, telomerase, TA-65 and the Life Length assay as offered in the U. S. by adltests.com. Question 1: Is the database mainly constructed in the US? Answer: The database is worldwide but the bulk of the database comes from the U.S. The only lab currently offering the Life …
Telomeres and longevity – questions from readers Read More »
A new study has linked the pain syndrome known as Fibromyalgia to shortened telomeres (biologic time clocks). I have already begun to get emails asking me if TA-65 will help this, due to the most recent information. Before I answer that question, a little background is in order. As you hopefully know already, the telomere …
Stem cells are often referred to as the “parts bag” of your body. When part of your body is damaged, there are two main avenues of repair – somatic cells and stem cells. Somatic cells are cells that are already at their final stage of evolution. Examples are mature heart, skin, liver and gut cells. …
A couple of questions have been nagging at those of us who study telomeres and telomerase closely. The first is – what is the correlation, if any, between tissue types? Typically we measure telomere length in the granulocyte line of White Blood Cells. These cells are typically responsible for fighting off viral infections and the …
New Study on Telomeres Answers some Huge Questions Read More »
Scientists are by nature skeptics. Usually it takes more than one positive result and one positive study to convince them. There is no set number of studies you need to do to sway scientific opinion and quiet naysayers. More often than not, it depends as much on opinion and bias of the so-called scientific community. …
Yet another study connects human lifespan with telomere length Read More »
Heart disease has one of the longest standing associations with short telomeres. Recently a similar association was established for strokes (thrombotic ((clot) and hemorrhagic (bleeding)). The limitations of these studies in terms of direct correlation are that they are not using modern technology to determine the shortest telomere lengths or percentage. They are still using …
Arguments continue among the best and brightest scientists concerning the question: Is aging unstoppable. If you think about it, that question has already been answered in a functional way. There are several mammalian cell lines that have been made “immortal” simply by turning on telomerase and expressing it at a higher level than normal. Most …