Thrive to 105

No doubt about it, when I think about thriving to 105, I’m usually thinking about what it is that I can personally do to improve my chances of reaching my goal.  However, it’s always very exciting to learn about what organizations, such as the Life Extension Foundation, are doing to help “the cause”.

In the past year or so, I’ve read about little things called “telomeres”…and they are, indeed, little!  They are little pieces of DNA that are like the plastic ends of shoelaces, only they sit at the end of our chromosomes to help prevent them from falling apart.  As we get older, the telomeres start to get shorter at a rate that is greatly dependent on our lifestyles.  Eventually, they get so short that our cells do start to become dysfunctional and we begin to age.

An article in Nature, a scientific journal, addressed a study done on mice whose aging had been accelerated by depriving their systems of the enzyme telomerase.  When telomerase was re-introduced back into their bodies, the telomeres that had shortened began to grow again, working like a “fountain of youth”, restoring their organs and brain functions to their younger versions.

According to Life Extension Magazine for April 2011:

“The significance of the Nature study is that it tested the effects of telomere lengthening in an animal model analogous in many ways to disabled elderly humans.”

Studies have been done on human cell cultures that show “restoring” the length of the telomeres promotes cell division, rather than having them deteriorate and die.

There are many who would argue that the benefits to humans cannot be established or even suggested merely by rapidly aging mice then administering the telomerase enzyme.  However, those who authored the study had this to say:

“In conclusion, this unprecedented reversal of age-related decline in the central nervous system and other organs vital to adult mammalian health justify exploration of telomere rejuvenation strategies for age-associated diseases, particularly those drive by accumulating genotoxic stress.”

The Life Extension Foundation is so encouraged and excited by the potential benefits of telomere lengthening in fighting the aging process that is has been funding research to delve into reversed aging in humans, which included telomere lengthening.  As of December of 2010, it has donated $2 million to ReCyte Therapeutics to do a new group of studies, at least one of which will be with mice to delve into cell rejuvenation and how it can be done.  One part of the study will include telomere lengthening in rejuvenating vascular systems (to prevent heart attacks) and immune senescence to help protect humans from cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune disorders.

Once these studies have proven, hopefully, the great potential for telomere lengthening and its affect with mice, the research can go on to try and document findings using human specimens.  Pretty amazing stuff, and something I intend to keep my eyes on.

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