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Posted on 05/16/2011 10:23:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
MENLO PARK, Calif., May 13 (UPI) -- A blood test that measures the length of a person's telomeres -- a predictor of longevity -- may be available soon, U.S. and Spanish researchers say.
"Knowing whether our telomeres are a normal length or not for a given chronological age will give us an indication of our health status and of our physiological 'age' even before diseases appear," Maria A. Blasco, who heads the Telomeres and Telomerase Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center and who co-founded the company Life Length, told Scientific American.
Telomeres are caps on the ends of chromosomes protecting the ends from fraying. Many scientists view telomere length as a marker of biological aging, a "molecular" clock ticking off the cell's lifespan, as well as an indicator of health. Studies show distinct correlations between telomere length and lifestyle -- those who say they are the most stressed have shorter telomere lengths.
Telomere pioneer Calvin B. Harley, who co-founded Telome Health with Nobel laureate Elizabeth H. Blackburn, says telomere length may be the best single measure of integrated genetics, previous lifestyle and environmental exposures.
Those who have shorter telomere length may be able to improve diet, exercise and stress -- but some say people may be able to improve lifestyle with taking a telomere test, Nilesh J. Samani of the University of Leicester in England said.
I don’t want to now either. Why spoil the surprise?
We could go on the "blue collar comedy tour" with this stuff!!
Too late....I'm told I'm "uninsurable".
Guess I'm gonna have to wait for stain-ocare to kick in.
What? This test knows if you are going to get run over by a bus?
By what right? By what code? By what standard?
I would rather be surprised.
You’re right, definitely not if people could grow their own or buy it legally.
Wonder what weird, pricelessly rare substance they will grind up for the quack medicine? Rhino horns and Tiger testacles are obsolete now...
Darn!
“The Appointment in Samarra”
(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])
The speaker is Death
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
Am I the only one thinking of the Viking “Web of Wyrd” woven at your birth?
The skein of your life is measured, finite and predetermined.
The US users of Mexican derived drugs including marijuana may very well indeed have blood on their hands, or in their lungs, or up their noses. People have died so some US druggies can get their fixes...
And God will hold us accountable for it!
My wife’s family had a friend like that...he raided his business for all the cash he could and lived a great life. Just as he was finally being forced to deal with the tax consequences, he died of a massive heart attack.
I want one of those tests before I file my next ITR.
“Am I the only one thinking of the Viking Web of Wyrd?”
Um... yes, you are the only one thinking that. But now that you mentioned it, it is very interesting (as soon as I look it up). LOL
Robert Heinlein published a short story, “Life Line”, in 1939 in which such a ‘test’ was introduced by a Dr. Pinero.
Complications ensue ...
I believe it was his first ever published story.
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