Telomeres

[ERK]

Sent in blood sample to one of the companies that tests telomeres in white blood cells. I was looking forward to finding out that my hard work of taking care of myself would be rewarded! Unfortunately it was a shock. I'm 80 years old on a cellular level!

If anyone has any reassuring information I would greatly appreciate it. My husband is 72 real age and his cellular age was 74!
I almost wish I hadn't learned this!

Has anyone else had their telomeres measured for kicks? I was looking around the other day at a few labs that will do the test for a relatively small fee (although they range from < $100 to over $200.) I'm not quite sure what you'd do with the data (aside from stress out if it's a poor result and shorten your telomeres, haha), but it does seem like an interesting biomarker to check out. I've got the telomere-length test bookmarked next to IGF1, for the next time I'm feeling like splurging on some nerdy anti-aging health data.

This was an interesting post on reddit, but it seems pretty "high-risk:"


"If I can believe titanovo, I had the telomeres of a 55 year old man. In mid-April I started a course of epitalon... At the end of June I submitted another test, and the results just came back. My telomere length is up by 1,000 base pairs, and titanovo now says I have the telemore length of a ... ten year old boy."

Maybe there's new research on the horizon for other interventions.

Yes, I had mine measured about 3 years ago (Spectracell). It correlated to 28 years but I forget the exact base pair numbers (I was 47 at the time). I have experimented with TA65 although due to expense I stopped using it.

[Gilgamesh]

Ah, TeloYears. Google María Blasco, who has a very different approach that many in the CR world place much faith in. (I can't vouch for any company myself.)

Here's Blasco's company:

http://lifelength.com/

And, on Blasco:

http://www.cnio.es/ES/grupos/plantillas ... asp?pag=39

G

[philking]

I have blood tested my telomeres through Maria Blascoe and my age was half my age. So I am going to go with your statement:

" I probably should have never ventured down this path."

and I wholeheartedly agree with this statement:

".....but a test I would discourage"

Telomere length is not telling us much of anything yet from what my research tells me and you tested white blood cells. That seems to me to have to do with the immune system somewhat and I know that our immune system begins to fall off a cliff at age 70 so you may just be testing something relative to your immune system. Our thymus gland has completely turned to fat by around 65 so we do not produce new naïve "t" cells so maybe the cells you are having tested are more a part of that.

Telomere lengths can vary in different tissues so this could support a speculation that you might not be 80 years old everywhere.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 7400001731

Now I see you have done the saliva test. Well I plan to do that one too after all is said because I just like researching everything, but I am not sure if we should put too much "worry" into almost any of this.

[sluggerT]

APOE 3/4 here. I got a TeloYears test as a gift for my 37th birthday recently. Test results came back and I am 59 in TeloYears, putting me in the bottom 10% for telomere length for my age. 22 years older according to Telomere length...talk about a kick in the pants!

Anyway @pguyer807 I'm really interested in the results of your saliva test and how they compare with your TeloYears results. Would you mind updating the group?

Thanks!

[Julie G]

Welcome, SluggerT. I've been tempted to take a look at telomere testing, but I already know that mine would turn out poorly too. I've got a chronic case of Babesiosis and a downregulated immune system as proof. How's your overall health? Your energy level? You results make me wonder if you may also be dealing with some kind of chronic underlying infection...

Because I also have relatively high titers of cytomegalovirus (CMV,) I've been considering adding TA65 into my stack, but the price is scary. I had the opportunity to but it cheaper at the recent IFM conference, but balked. I'd like to get my FMP's input first. Is anybody using it? I'm currently receiving bimonthly IVIG treatments. I'd love to give that up...

Here's some research on folks with CMV:
A Natural Product Telomerase Activator Lengthens Telomeres in Humans: A Randomized, Double Blind, and Placebo Controlled Study.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26950204

TA-65 is a dietary supplement based on an improved formulation of a small molecule telomerase activator that was discovered in a systematic screening of natural product extracts from traditional Chinese medicines. This study summarizes the findings on telomere length (TL) changes from a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study of TA-65 over a 1 year period. The study was conducted on 117 relatively healthy cytomegalovirus-positive subjects aged 53-87 years old. Subjects taking the low dose of TA-65 (250 U) significantly increased TL over the 12 months period (530 ± 180 bp; p = 0.005), whereas subjects in the placebo group significantly lost TL (290 ± 100 bp; p = 0.01). The high dose of TA-65 (1000 U) showed a trend of improvements in TL compared with that of the placebo group; however, the improvements did not reach statistical significance. TL changes in the low-dose group were similar for both median and 20th percentile TLs. The findings suggest that TA-65 can lengthen telomeres in a statistically and possibly clinically significant manner.

Dumb question: I believe that astragalus is the primary herb in TA-65. Why can't we just take that? Here's one man's foray down that path. Unfortunately, he failed to follow-up with telomere testing. Hmm...

[sluggerT]

Thanks for the reply Julie. You may be right about an underlying chronic infection simply because I'm otherwise doing everything the TeloYears people say to support long telomere length. Good diet, sleep, meditation, exercise (but not too much), etc. I think that's why my results were so hard to swallow at first; I'm already doing 90% of the things they suggest to try to improve. They are sending another test to me for confirmation of the original results since they were so out of the ordinary. We'll see how those turn up.

I've heard really good things about TA-65 as well, but I don't have the $$$ to take that for the next 30-40 years (if I make it that long.) Ha!

[circular]

I did teloyears and came back bio age 2 years older, so not toooooo bad, and I'm susceptible to viruses too . Now wondering about the saliva one. I haven't researched it, but I'm guessing intermittent fasting would help protect telomere length somehow? At least it helps clear the scenescent cells that shortened telomeres lead to.

[circular]

Fasting > more immune stem cells > stem cells produce active part of telomerase that prevents shortening.

[Rainy]

Thank you, everyone! Is the telomere length blood test considered valid according to scientific, data-based AD research? Especially since it appears that other medical conditions also affect telomere length.

Real question: Are longevity clinics and telomere length blood tests for real? Is there reliable consensus one way or the other? How does the medical community line up on this one, since the telomere test is apparently not a test your primary care doc or neurologist can order from the lab or submit to insurance?

[shacherry]

Is the telomere length blood test considered valid according to scientific, data-based AD research?

I'm going to follow this thread since it is such a fascinating question!