Live Longer; Measure How Quickly You’re Aging, Then Turn Your Life Around; Find out How We’re Measuring Telomeres.
Telomeres are sections of DNA at the end of each chromosome that serve as a cap to your genetic material. Every time a cell replicates, its telomere will become shorter. Shorter telomeres imply a short life span for a cell.
We utilize a test from Spectracell Laboratory, that calculates a patient telomere score, based on a patient’s telomere length of T-lymphocytes. This average is compared to the telomere length on lymphocytes from a sample of the American population in the same age range. The higher the score the “younger” the cells. The lifestyle changes that need to be made to change cellular aging are a big part of the work I do in clinical practice. The lifestyle interventions I offer, are aimed at reducing oxidative stress, correcting micronutrient deficiencies; especially vitamin D, getting patients back in action by treating spinal and joint problems so they get the exercise they need to be healthy, and correcting insulin resistance, and working on healthy body composition by increasing lean body mass, and losing fat mass. Here’s a bit more on the science on this below.
The work of Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn at University of California, San Francisco, who is a biologist and a co-discoverer of telomeres and telomerase and a study by Dr. Dean Ornish have stimulated interest in measuring aging using telomeres as an indicator. In July of 2008 a study of 780 people was published in a journal by the American Heart Association; Journal of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. It was determined that in a group of patients with stable heart disease, those with the shortest telomeres in their immune cells (white blood cells) had 2x the risk of death than those with the longest. In the highest risk group, the telomeres were 1/2 the length of those in the lowest risk group. Telomeres are now thought to be a good measure of biologic age. High levels of stress hormones, inflammation, insulin, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, smoking, fatty diets, obesity, and sedentary lifestyle have all been linked shorter telomeres.
Dr. Robert Sapolsky at Stanford School of Medicine has discussed that telomere measures are a good time-integrated marker of bad news, as opposed to those other bio-markers of aging being indicative of conditions that are more acute. Telomere measurement indicates overall systemic wear and tear.
Telomeres are more sensitive to oxidative stress ( caused by smoking, fast food, etc. causing and increased free radical load) than the rest of the genome. When under stress, adrenal glands release hormones, glucocorticoids, that kill T-cells in the immune system, so that the cells remaining have to divide more often to replace them. The greater the cell division, the more wear and tear on telomeres. In “Aging”s inaugural issue, a study was cited that suggests that even before people manifested life threatening disease they already had shortened telomeres. The immune system becomes more inflamed as one ages, and subsequently, damaged.
A study in Lancet in November 2008 showed that one can elevate levels of telomerase and reverse the ill effects on telomeres causing them to lengthen. In this article, the conclusions were that comprehensive lifestyle interventions, to decrease fat in the diet, get regular exercise, reduce stress (through meditation, prayer, yoga) can increase telomerase activity by as much as 30% in just 3 months.
I encourage people to establish a baseline by getting conventional lab testing done as well as some other more targeted innovative tests like telomere, or other genetic testing. There are other functional biomarkers that we regularly use in our clinic that indicate inflammatory load; such as C reactive Protein, HbA1C; which is a measure of how your body is managing blood sugar and is used as an indicator of diabetes. Once a baseline is established, and changes are made in diet and exercise as well as other lifestyle factors, the re-testing can show us we’re making progress, and going in the right direction
