Telomeres and Telomerase News
Telomeres - secret to a long life
"Telomeres (pronounced tee-lo-meres) found on the tips of our chromosomes, play a key role in how fast our cells age. Healthy behaviors can actually lengthen our telomeres, which prevent premature aging at the cellular level." Elizabeth Blackburn Huffington Post
Telomerase - the enzyme
"Telomerase (pronounced tell-OMM-er-ase) is an enzyme discovered in 2009 that makes telomeres. If telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained, and cellular senescence is delayed." Elizabeth Blackburn NobelPrize.org
Telomeres monitor cell damage
"If you are wondering how your cells age, look no further than the ends of your chromosomes. Special structures called telomeres keep a close eye on the damage that accumulates in our cells and signal when it is time for them to retire." Yella Hewings-Martin Ph.D. - Medical News Today
Telomeres and sex
"Telomeres are a good indicator of health. They shorten with age, so the older you are and the shorter your telomeres, the more likely you are to develop a degenerative disease or to prematurely die, according to lead researcher" The University of California - Metro News
Mediterranean diet and telomeres
"The Mediterranean diet helps protect your telomeres, according to a Harvard study. Telomeres sit at the ends of your chromosomes and help protect the ends from fraying. Harvard researchers concluded that a greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with longer telomeres. The Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish" Harvard Medical School - Harvard Health
Telomerase lengthens telomeres
"Sierra Sciences mission is to develop a drug that will induce the production of telomerase to lengthen humans telomeres and therefore reverse our aging process, as well as cure diseases linked to aging. Ninety percent of everyone I talk to has never heard of a telomere and I think telomeres are the most significant discovery in medical research, ever!" Bill Anderson, Ph.D. - Sierrasci.com
Telomerase turns back the clock
"A new procedure can quickly and efficiently increase the length of human telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that are linked to aging and disease." Stanford School of Medicine - Stanford Medicine
Telomeres and meditation
"Meditation alters cancer survivors’ cells. A Canadian research team found that the telomeres, the protein caps at the end of our chromosomes that determine how quickly a cell ages, stayed the same length in cancer survivors who meditated. The telomeres of cancer survivors, who didn’t participate, shortened during the three-month study." University of Calgary Science Alert
Telomeres and aging
"Young muscle stem cells in patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy have shortened telomeres, causing these cells to be less able to build new muscle. Shortened telomeres have long been established as a characteristic of aging. We found that in boys with DMD, the telomeres are so short that the muscle stem cells are probably exhausted" Stacy Grieve Ph.D. Muscular Dystrophy News
Telomeres and nutrition
"The same studies linking shortened telomeres with aging have linked moderate exercise, as well as healthful habits and environments, with longer telomeres. Opting for exercise, good nutrition, and enriched social interactions, for example, are factors we can sometimes control. We’re uncovering details about how telomeres and a crucial enzyme I co-discovered, telomerase are linked with cancer and aging and aging-related diseases, such as stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease." Elizabeth Blackburn - Financial Review
Telomeres and smoking
"New research shows that dogs living with smokers have shorter telomeres, suggesting that at the physiological level these dogs are acting as if they had undergone premature aging. It has already been shown that there is a relationship between telomere shortening and lifespan, hence these dogs will likely have shorter lives." Stanley Coren Ph.D. - Psychology Today
Telomeres and exercise
"Larry Tucker, professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University, found in his study that people who exercised the most had significantly longer telomeres than those who were sedentary. The most sedentary people had 140 fewer base pairs of DNA at the ends of their telomeres, compared to the most active: a difference of about nine years of cellular aging, he says." Brigham Young University - Time Health
Heart patients have shorter telomeres
"Each cell in the average human body contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, with four telomeres on each pair. While there is a length range for classifying a healthy telomere, researchers found, for the first time ever, that people with heart failure have shorter telomeres within the cells that make up the heart muscle" University of Pennsylvania - Medical Press
Telomeres shorten as we age
"Telomeres (pronounced tee-lo-meres) are the tail ends of twisty DNA strands in the cells of every living thing. Think of DNA as shoelaces, she says, and telomeres as the tiny plastic tips that keep the laces from fraying. Like most materials, telomeres tend to wear down by shortening and, whenever they do, that living thing ages." Elizabeth Blackburn - Straits Times
Telomeres and sperm
"Studies show that sperm are not subject to the telomere-shortening effect. In fact, the telomeres in sperm-producing stem cells not only resist degrading, they actually grow. This may be thanks to a high concentration of the telomere-repairing enzyme telomerase in the testicles; researchers are still uncertain. All they know is that the older the man, the longer the telomeres in his sperm will be." Sophie Bushwick - Discover Magazine
Telomeres measure biological age
"The length of a person’s telomeres is a good indicator of his or her overall health status; short telomeres have been associated with cellular aging and dysfunction. The real biological age of a person’s body may be more or less than their chronological age. Telomere length is considered a key marker in measuring a person’s biological age as opposed to their chronological age." T.A. Science - T.A Science
Athletes have longer telomeres
"Recent science suggests that exercise may slow the fraying of telomeres. Past studies have found, for instance, that master athletes typically have longer telomeres than sedentary people of the same age, as do older women who frequently walk or engage in other fairly moderate exercise." Gretchen Reynolds - New York Times
Telomeres and inflammation
"The underlying research is solid. “If you have a terrible diet and you smoke, you’re definitely shortening your life, and shortening your telomeres. Short telomeres increase the likelihood of cells becoming senescent and producing molecules that lead to inflammation, which she said is a huge risk factor for every age-related disease" Buck Institute for Research on Aging - Scientific American
Telomeres and sexual intimacy
"Study finds sexual intimacy is associated with longer telomere length in women. Scientists in California have now found that sexual intimacy is associated with longer telomeres, the protective end caps on our DNA. Over time, shortened telomeres may contribute to chronic degenerative diseases and premature mortality." University of California - Psy Post
Telomeres and love-kindness meditators
"A study at Harvard Medical School reports loving-kindness meditators have long telomeres. Researchers at Harvard obtained blood samples from meditators and non-meditators. The researchers found the meditators had longer telomeres than non-meditators. Furthermore, female meditators had significantly longer telomere length than non-meditators." Harvard Medical School - Huffington Post
Telomeres can be measured
"Inside every cell in your body are telomeres, the changing protective caps on the ends of your DNA strands that get shorter with age at a rate that can increase or decrease with lifestyle factors either positive or negative. Your telomere length is an important measure of your cells' capacity to make copies of themselves, a necessary process for you to grow, heal, and thrive. Telo Years - TeloYears.com
