

Large New Survey Tracks Telomere Length and Mortality - sjcsjc
http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2015/04/29/large-new-survey-tracks-telomere-length-and-mortality/

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sjcsjc
tl;dr - "Last week, a Danish study was published that tracked 65,000 people
over 15 years. The bottom line was that telomere length robustly predicts
longevity, even after factoring out the effect of age, smoking, exercise,
blood cholesterol, BMI, and alcohol consumption."

Mitteldorf argues that short telomeres are not just a marker but a major cause
of mortality, and discusses the hypothesis that short telomeres protect
against cancer (a theory he doesn't subscribe to).

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mrfusion
Is telomere length something that's relatively easy to increase with future
medications? Or is it nearly impossible to get something into all your cells
and get them lengthening the telomeres? (ignoring cancer risk, just curious
about a potential process)

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throwaway12357
For me the most interesting conclusion (from the blog author) was that
telomere-lengthening treatments may only give you an extra 5 years. But he
does point out that this conclusion may be incorrect since the data
measurement may need some changes.

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dbcooper
It seems that the blog post author doesn't actually link to the new paper he
discusses, nor provide a citation.

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sjcsjc
[http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/6/djv074.short](http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/6/djv074.short)

I'd guess it was an oversight. He linked to it in his previous weekly post.

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sjcsjc
He's fixed it now.

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ddmf
Now we need some kind of study to see if telomere length causes changes in
palm line patterns... ;)

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mrfusion
Why can't we test these ideas in mice or drosophila and get a better idea
about the effects?

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craigwblake
From another of the author's articles:

 _In limited studies with mice, telomerase enhancers have led to
rejuvenation._

[http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/telomerase-as-a-
founta...](http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/telomerase-as-a-fountain-of-
youth/)

