Jun
17
2023

Telomeres can Protect you from Premature Aging

By | lifestyle, Mortality, telomeres

Longer telomeres can protect you from premature aging, and shorter telomeres lead to premature death and various diseases. But recently new research showed that sometimes longer telomeres can be responsible for cancer and lower life expectancy. I will discuss this further below.

Some facts about telomeres

Telomeres are the caps on the chromosomes that do not contain genes, but are important for cell division. When cells divide, the DNA with all the genetic information about us replicates. With cell division each copy of our DNA ends up in a new cell, but the telomere gets shorter with every cell division. The enzyme telomerase is able to lengthen our telomeres. A healthy Mediterranean diet, regular exercise, not smoking cigarettes, sleeping 7 or 8 hours every night are all factors that stimulate elongation of our telomeres. When telomeres are short, they can no longer divide, but the cells turn into senescent cells. They no longer divide, but they stay metabolically active and are significant in the diseases of the aging. They cause osteoarthritis, hardening of the arteries and cancer.

Mice with hyper-long telomeres live much longer than control animals and they have lower LDL cholesterol levels.

Animal studies confirm that short telomeres mean shorter lifespan

There were animal studies that showed that telomeres shorten more slowly in long-lived birds and mammals.

A study looked at the telomere shortening rates of different animal species. They found that those species that had the fastest telomere shortening rate were also the ones with the shortest life span.

Shorter telomeres can also cause several chronic health conditions.

Telomerase helps to keep telomeres from shortening

An important ingredient in every body cell is the enzyme telomerase. It attaches to telomeres and adds DNA to telomeres thus elongating them. Many healthy lifestyles increase telomerase and help shortened telomeres to get longer again.

What preserves the length of your telomeres?

I have previously reviewed factors that elongate telomeres. Here is a summary of this information.

Telomere length enhancers

  1. Lifestyle changes can have positive effects on telomere length. Examples are smoking cessation, weight loss and stress reduction.
  2. Dietary changes: we know that fish oil (omega-3 fatty acids) supplements elongate telomeres as does a low-fat diet.
  3. Supplements like vitamin D3, antioxidants (vitamin C and E) and astragalus (TA-65) elongate telomeres as well.  The astragalus supplement, TA-65 showed a significant elongation of telomeres after 12 months while controls lost telomere length.
  4. Exercise: in a 24-week experiment of care workers regular aerobic exercise increased the telomeres by 67.3 base pairs.
  5. Bioidentical hormone replacement in aging people: when hormones are missing after andropause and menopause, the natural hormones need replacing, or the telomeres are shortening.
  6. High cortisol levels cause telomere shortening.
  7. Human growth hormone elongates telomeres via telomerase activation.
  8. The fasting mimicking diet (FMD) was shown to extend life and telomeres as well.

Conflicting research about longer telomeres

A publication in the New England Journal of Medicine dated May 4, 2023 showed that patients with a POT1 mutation had long telomeres.  This mutation caused cancers, brain tumors, B- and T-cell lymphomas and bone marrow cancers. The long telomeres facilitated cancer growth. Normally this type of mutation is rare and in patients without this mutation long telomeres would lead to longevity.

Dr. Joshua Berkowitz, the Medical Director of IV Boost UK, said that further research needs to focus on the following: “Identifying genetic and epigenetic factors that contribute to aging and longevity, understanding the role of the microbiome in aging and longevity, and investigating the role of senescent cells in aging and age-related diseases.”

Telomeres can Protect you from Premature Aging

Telomeres can Protect you from Premature Aging

Conclusion

Our telomeres are needed for cell division. When telomeres get shorter with age there is a consensus that this leads to a potentially dangerous situation. The cells turn into senescent cells. They no longer divide, but they stay metabolically active and are causing the diseases of the aging. These are osteoarthritis, hardening of the arteries, cancer and many more. On the other end of the spectrum with regular exercise, a Mediterranean diet and a normal weight, telomeres can get elongated, which for most people means a longer life expectancy. However, recent research showed that patients with a POT1 mutation are vulnerable to facilitating cancer growth and premature death. Fortunately, the POT1 mutation is rare. Future research will clarify what the safest way is to achieve longevity.

Dec
27
2014

Stem Cells, Telomeres, Hormones And Lifestyle

By | Hormones, lifestyle, stem cells, telomeres

I recently attended the 22nd Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine in Las Vegas (Dec.10 to 14, 2014) and stem cells, telomeres, hormones and lifestyle were the highlights this year. Every year there seems to be something new to learn. Truly, there were a lot of talks about stem cell treatments, about how lifestyle changes can be healing and how telomeres are in the center of epigenetics. It is important to realize that epigenetics is anything a person can do with lifestyle to help the body work better. In the center of many talks were telomeres, the small caps at the end of the DNA. Indeed, with all cell divisions telomeres get shortened a bit until at the end of our lives our telomeres are significantly shorter.

Shortened telomeres means shortened life

In one talk a slide was shown where the measurements of white blood cell telomeres from blood tests of a population from 20 to 100 years were shown. At the age of 100 the average telomere length was only 40% of the average length of telomeres of the group at the age of 20.

In the past it was thought that our genes and how they function was something constant. Well, we have to rethink this both in positive ways as well as negatively. Using telomere blood tests, it has been shown that certain diseases are associated with shorter telomeres. But on the other hand, positive lifestyle changes and certain supplements can elongate telomeres by stimulating an enzyme called telomerase.

Positive changes of our epigenetics can elongate telomeres

Drinking excessively, doing drugs, smoking and even using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) shorten your telomeres. This is what epigenetics is all about. It is true that you cannot change your genetics, but you can change the epigenetics (meaning the length of telomeres).

As this topic is so large, I have decided to give an overview about the conference in this blog and in future blogs provide more details about some of the key talks.

A review like this is always personal. Other people probably would find other talks more illuminating. So here are my personal impressions about the topics that I found most fascinating.

Stem cells

There were several talks about stem cells. Dr. Joseph Purita talked about the rejuvenating effects of PRP (platelet rich plasma) on stem cells that he injected into patients. This was a fairly technical talk, but pointed out how important it is to provide the appropriate growth factors to nurture transplanted stem cells for a long-term success. The sources of stem cells can be from fatty tissue around the “love handles” or the abdominal fat. A stem cell separator is used to separate stem cells from the rest of the tissue. This is combined with PRP coming from centrifuged blood and is combined with the stem cells and injected.

Soft lasers can activate stem cells

The newest insight is that short-term exposure to red, green and blue soft lasers further activates stem cells. Another source for stem cells is the bone marrow, usually from the pelvic bone, particularly for orthopedic surgical problems like non-healing fractures or torn ligaments. Slides were shown of completely healed avascular necrosis following stem cell treatment. At other lectures on prolotherapy combined with stem cell therapy completely torn anterior cruciate ligaments in the knee and a complete rotator cuff tear in the shoulder in another patient were healed (MRI scan shown before and after treatment).

Lifestyle

Dr. David Katz gave a presentation about “Integrative Medicine: A Bridge Over Healthcare’s Troubled Waters”. He pointed out that the first three things on the actual causes of deaths in the US in 1993 were tobacco use, poor diet and lack of exercise. In 2004 the revised list no longer contained tobacco as the number one killer. All of the public campaigns had changed the culture of smoking so that the average American has changed the lifestyle. Stopping smoking has become desirable, and people know the devastating consequences of smoking. Dr. Katz stated that there is no magic pill to reduce mortality. However, if a healthy lifestyle were a pill, this is exactly what would reduce mortality by 80%. If you exercise on a regular basis, eat a Mediterranean type diet, and avoid sugary drinks you will prevent 80% of heart attacks, strokes and many cancers.

Telomeres

Dr. Sandy Chang gave a talk about “Telomere measurement as a diagnostic test in cardiovascular and age-related disease”. He pointed out that there is a large body of literature showing that telomere length is directly related to health. The shorter the telomeres are, the higher is the probability to experience problems: early menopause, infertility, diabetes, wrinkles, arthritis, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, cancer, stress, a lack of stem cells. These are a number of factors that shorten telomeres: stress, poor diets, smoking, obesity, chronic inflammatory diseases, metabolic disorders like diabetes, over consumption of alcohol and lack of sleep.

Telomere elongation leading to longer life

Dr. Chang mentioned that there is a whole host of factors that can elongate telomeres by stimulating telomerase. His research group showed in humans that increased physical activity elongates telomeres. So did vitamin C, E and vitamin D3 supplementation, resveratrol, a Mediterranean diet and marine omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. In addition, higher fiber intake, bioidentical estrogen in women and testosterone in men, relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation are also elongating telomeres.

Stimulation of telomerase can elongate telomeres

Other speakers also talked about telomeres: Dr. Al Sears’ talk was entitled: “Telo-Nutritioneering: The latest generation of telomere modulators”. He mentioned that in his research he has identified at least 123 nutrients, vitamins and natural compounds that will elongate telomeres, often by stimulating telomerase. Vitamin C will significantly delay shortening of telomeres, which translates into delayed aging. In addition, researchers recently showed that vitamin C stimulates telomerase activity in certain stem cells. Also, there is an herb, called Silymarin extract. Researchers found that this increases telomerase activity threefold. N-acetyl cysteine is a building block for glutathione, a powerful antioxidant. In addition, research showed how to turn on the human telomerase gene. Other telomerase stimulators are green tea extract, ginkgo biloba, gamma tocotrienol (one of the components of the vitamin E group), vitamin D3 and folic acid.

Methylation defects

Dr. George Rozakis gave a talk entitled “Nutrigenomics” where he mentioned that many diseases are due to methylation defects, a cellular pathway that required vitamin B2, B6 and B12. People with this defect have minor genetic variations that lead to elevated homocysteine in the blood. For instance, migraine sufferers often have methylation pathway problems, which involves histamine overproduction and 92% of them can be helped with a histamine-restricted diet. Correcting a methylation pathway defect with the help of L-methylfolate can cure other diseases like depressive illness that does not respond to conventional antidepressant medication.

 

Stem Cells, Telomeres, Hormones And Lifestyle

Stem Cells, Telomeres, Hormones And Lifestyle

Hormone changes with stress

Dr. Thierry Hertoghe gave a lecture on “Burnout: A multiple hormone deficiency syndrome”. He said that burnout is a common condition where several hormones are affected, with the cortisol axis being the main one, but other hormone glands being stressed as well. As a result, endocrine glands age prematurely. Symptoms are fatigue, exhaustion, gastrointestinal problems, anxiety, depression and aggressiveness. The underlying hormone abnormalities are a lack of cortisol, thyroid deficiency, growth hormone deficiency, testosterone and estrogen deficiency and oxytocin deficiency. Burnout is common in teachers and there is a questionnaire that has been developed for teachers. It has the name  “teacher’s burnout scale” and monitors them whether they are heading this way.

Burnout and PTSD

Soldiers who return from combative situations often suffer from burnout or from PTSD. In suspected cases laboratory tests that measure hormone levels give concrete answers about deficiencies. There was a discussion of treatment protocols in detail. Multiple bioidentical hormone replacements are necessary, possibly for prolonged periods, if not lifelong. In addition, supportive counseling sessions from a counselor or psychiatrist will help to tone down increased brain activity and help regain the internal balance. Why is this important? Because hormones are necessary on a cellular level and regulate the energy metabolism of every cell in the body.

Conclusion

This year’s conference was a very interesting combination of new information on stem cell therapy, telomeres and lifestyle intervention. As we age we lose hormones, which makes us age faster as the telomeres shorten faster. Shorter telomeres lead to inflammation in the body, which cause a myriad of disease processes. Patients can counter this aging process by adopting a healthier lifestyle with regular exercising, a Mediterranean diet and abandoning unhealthy habits like smoking, excessive drinking or taking illicit drugs. Vitamins and supplements, particularly resveratrol, CoQ-10 and omega-3 fatty acids will help to elongate and stabilize our telomeres. As Dr. Katz said: “A healthy lifestyle will reduce your mortality rate by 80%”.