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The Telomeres Theory of Aging is Possibly the Most Important Medical Discovery of All Times
Also find on this page: History may mark unlocking the telomeres secrets of aging at the beginning of the 21st century as the time when we finally understood how to stop or slow down the process. It can change the course of human history. In 1950, a researcher Leonard Hayflick accidentally discovered that our cells, when isolated from the body would divide about 60 to 80 times and then mysteriously die. No amount of care and feeding could make them live longer. For many years, the cause of this phenomenon remained a mystery. Later, cell biologists discovered that at the end of each long strand of DNA there was a cap, sort of sealing the strand together, keeping it from unraveling. Scientists called this structure a “telomere.” Further, it was discovered that each time a cell divides, a little piece of the DNA's cap was eroded. After about 60-80 divisions, it was completely gone, allowing the DNA to unravel. But there is more to it. When we get sick, our immune system makes copies of its T-cells, also known as disease-fighting white blood cells. These cells divide over and over again to fight off the infecting foreign bacteria or virus, invading our body. The more often our T-cells reproduce by dividing, the shorter their DNA's caps become until they stop copying. The older we get, the fewer active T-cells we have because they’ve fought off as much sicknesses as they can. The bottom line is that when our telomeres are short, our immune system looks and acts old. This explains that as we are get older it makes our risk for infection and disease much higher. One study looked at about 150 people from 60-75 years old. The ones who had shorter telomeres were three times more likely to die from a heart disease. And they were eight times more likely to die from an infectious disease. Some Major diseases explained by telomeres shortening Shortened DNA's caps also appear to be the mechanism for many chronic diseases like: * Diabetes. When we eat too many carbohydrates, our pancreas is asked to create more insulin than it’s supposed to. And to get the job done, the pancreas has to create more of the insulin it needs by making more cells. If the pancreas is continually challenged to produce more and more insulin, the cells have to continue to divide. When their telomeres are too short, they can’t reproduce anymore, and our body can’t make the insulin we need. This is what causes diabetes. * Atherosclerosis. One study looked at men with high blood pressure. Those with shorter telomeres in their white blood cells were more likely to get heart disease. * Alzheimer’s disease. Our Alzheimer’s glial cells - the maintenance cells to the brain, generally have short telomeres. Some kind of toxic environmental hazard causes those cells to replicate to defend themselves. Later it has been discovered that free radicals can also chip away at the telomeres, shortening the cell’s lifespan. It reminds us about the Free Radicals Theory of Aging.
Our immortal cells and Longevity mechanisms At about the same time, scientists have documented the existence of special cells that seem to be immortal. These were immune, egg and sperm cells, and malignant cancer-forming cells. For example, cancer cells are immortal because they possess a special enzyme called telomerase, which continuously replenishes the damaged telomere. Normal cells have little or no telomerase – again, with the exception of immune, egg and sperm cells, and cancer-forming cells. Telomerase is fully functional also in reproductive cells. Stem cells (undifferentiated - not belonging to any specific organ) also have significant amounts of telomerase.
That’s because they are responsible for replacing cells in various organs and tissues, and need to divide frequently. However, even their telomerase activity wanes with age. Stem cells get old as well. In contrast to women, men are fertile throughout life, but research at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has shown that a fertilizing sperm is getting help from the egg to rejuvenate. The risk of chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus is highly correlated to the age of the mother, but is nearly independent of the age of the father. This science allows believing that theoretically humans could be immortal if all our cells contained telomerase. Unfortunately, it is much more complicated than that – for today’s science. However, what about tomorrow, or a day after that? As we age, our DNA is continuously being bombarded by Free Radicals and lipid peroxidation products. While most of this damage is fixed by special DNA-repair enzymes, a small amount of the damage is never avoided, and over time accumulated. The older we get, the more intense is the damage. Interesting, that a 10-year-old’s DNA is 10 times more vulnerable to oxidative damage than a 20-year-old’s is. This should be convincing to supplement our kids or grand-kids with good antioxidants. When our telomeres get too short, our cell no longer divides. It’s old and feeble. In other words, telomere shortening is a major key to the aging process! What can we do to slow down the DNA's caps shortening? As we approach middle age, we have accumulated so much damage that things start going wrong, but we can ease the process at least to some extend. Our body is constantly renewing, rebuilding, repairing and cleansing itself throughout our live. With all this constant renewal, we should stay young forever, but we don’t. We all age. Every time our cells divide, reproducing into a new generation, the clock is running out. While this science is still very young, it has already proven that no daughter cell is a compete copy of the parent. A tiny piece of the DNA is lost – its telomere becomes shorter. When the DNA's cap becomes sufficiently shorter after about 60-80 division cycles, the cell enters programmed cell death. In addition to serving as a time counter, these DNA's caps define behavior of the cells – they slow down when telomeres become shorter. Hormones output and immune function weakens, what also affects other cells, so slowing them down as well. Further in this unhappy process more cells can’t defend and protect the body, more often allowing diseases to take over. The science already created some strategies to slow down the cells shortening. It was discovered that high homocysteine level in the body triples the amount of telomere length that was lost during cell division. This is tripling the speed at which our body is aging. A simple blood test shows our homosysteine levels. You can visit our strategies to slow telomeres shortening page to see which nutrients can help and how the latest holistic science is suggesting to do it. Free Radicals Page Loading
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