Why Do Our Bodies Age?
For thousands of years famous explorers have searched to find the solution to stop or reverse the aging process. Today people turn to harsh treatments like chemical peels and Botox injections. But not any of those solutions are solutions to the core problem. Our cells divide every day and the new cells’ DNA does not get a perfect copy.So the core problem is that our CELLS age. The most obvious aging of our cells that we see is in our skin as we develop wrinkles, age spots, dryness, discoloring and more. In every cell we have our chromosomes and the end caps ...
Violence Causes Aging
A new study suggests that being exposed to violence causes us to age faster than normal. In a recent study scientist measured the Telomeres of children under the age of 10 who are subjects to domestic violence, physical maltreatment by an adult or bullying. The kids who were exposed to such types of violence were showing a faster shortening of Telomeres and with that a more rapid aging process. Shale, a post-doctoral researcher at Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy in Durham, N.C. says that unless there is a significant change in these children's life's to non-violence ...
Stress related Diseases shorten Telomeres
Most recent research is indicating that Stress is having an impact on our Aging process. It not only affects our hormonal balance and with that which organs in the body are being turned on or off. When we are in stress we are in a fight or flight mode which means that a lot of body functions, such as digestion and metabolism is put on the side burner. Our eyes, dilate, blood pressure goes up, heart is beating faster and we breath heavier and more rapidly. Now scientists are finding some effects that are not so obvious but ...
The Search for Links Between Telomeres and Anti-Aging
Since telomeres were discovered and the mechanism behind them elucidated during the 1970s, there has now emerged the question of the relationship between telomeres and anti-aging. Before discerning the relationship between telomeres and anti-aging, let us take a look at what telomeres are. Telomeres are repetitive DNA strands found in tail ends of chromosomes. Telomeres are the ultimate arbiters of whether a cell will continue dividing or not: as long as the telomeres of a cell are long enough, the cell can still divide, but for each division, the telomeres get shorter. The telomere will shorten to the extent that the ...
The Benefits of Why We Should Continue Telomere Research
Telomere research is a very integral segment of cell physiology. Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA found at the tip of a chromosome. In 1970, a Russian scientist Alexei Olovnikov first noticed that the tips of chromosomes do not divide at all, and so he then suggested that whenever a cell divides, some parts of that "tip" shed off, until the loss is so substantial such that the cell cannot divide any further, and so dies. A little while later, Elizabeth Blackburn, while doing postdoctoral studies at Yale, determines that these telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences at chromosome tips. The ...
Telomere Products and What They Can Mean for Your Life
An exciting team of Noble Prize winning scientists have made telomeres popular. They have even brought about a bit of authenticity to the link between telomeres and anti-aging. One of the ingredients discovered is called teprenone, which people are using in different anti-aging lotions and skin care products. It is also sometimes called Renovage. So, why are telomeres important and how do they work, and what can the latest telomere products do for us? I always think it's important to explain it in the most basic way possible. Let's just break it down like this. Telomeres are on the end of ...
Nov 11
21
The Function of Telomerase
When the cell replicates and divides, the sequence of nucleotides slowly gets shorter, and the telomere length declines as well. The shortening of the telomeres is believed to be the source of cellular damage, causing the cell division process to slow down as well. Slow, cellular decline leads to dysfunction which causes death. The telomerase enzyme helps to stop the loss of gene information during DNA replication. The telomerase enzyme is at the helm for maintaining cell division behaviors.
Many different proteins and a string of RNA make up telomerase. Telomerase enzymes seem to halt the cellular cycle of aging by giving extra DNA data to the chromosomes. Telomerase enzymes allow the cells to divide, and allow for cell regeneration. Many scientists are coming to the conclusion that it is possible to reverse aging with the telomerase enzyme in this lifetime!
New research shows the role of short Telomeres in emphysema, a lung disease mostly developed in people who smoke cigarettes. This is a deadly disease for which no treatment has been found yet.
In emphysema, the alveoli, which are the small air sacs that exchange oxygen in the lungs, are lost. This means less oxygen can be inhaled and therefore less oxygen is available in the body. This is most commonly found in older people who smoke and sometimes, yet very rarely, in non-smokers.
This disease is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States with growing numbers. Mary Armanios, MD, assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said: “We found that in mice that have short telomeres, there was a significant increased risk of developing emphysema after exposure to cigarette smoke.” The study was lead by Dr Armanios and her colleagues. The mice were exposed to cigarette smoke for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week for six months.
Study of children with rare case of genetic mutation that causes drastic early aging and death is now being linked to short or missing Telomeres by top scientists.
Francis Collins, MD,PHD is the Director of national Institutes of Health is leading the research on a treatment that might offer longer lives for children with Hutchinson Gilford progeria syndrome in children which is causing premature aging.
Children born with this disease die around the age of 12 usually because of heart disease.
Collins believes that the cause of this drastic aging is the result of damaged Telomeres or even total loss of them. Telomeres protect the DNA from damage as our cells replicate.
Oct 11
23
Testing Telomere Health for Embryos
British Doctors have developed a new test for embryos that could drastically raise the success rate for couples who have IVF treatment. They are able to check embryos created at fertility clinics for biological signs of healthy growth and abnormal chromosomes.
This will improve the success rate by being able to pick the best embryos for implanting from the regular 30% to 100%, so say the researchers at Oxford University.
The test is directed to check the mitochondria as well as the TELOMERES in the cells to make sure the genetic code inside the chromosomes is protected when The DNA is being replicated during cell division.
This test can be done on eggs as well as embryos and will cost £2,000.
Oct 11
19
Common Misspellings for Telomeres
The Word Telomeres is becoming more and more famous not just in the world of science but to the public learning about them, in connection with aging or better said – anti-aging. Often misspelled as telemers or telemeres the correct spelling is Telomeres. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos (τέλος) “end” and merοs (μέρος, root: μερ-) “part.
In connection with Telemeres the same thing happens to the word Telomerase which often gets misspelled as telemerase.