News & Press
Telomere length basically determine how long a cell can live and continue to replicate itself. No more telomeres, and the cell can't copy itself anymore.
Researchers have identified a variant of the TERC gene that may determine both the length and shortening rate of the telomeres. If so, aging processes and variability may be better understood.
More on Telomeres and Aging
Telomere Controlling Gene originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 06:11:47.
Next time you have a craving, try this trick -- go brush your teeth. The taste of the toothpaste and the action of brushing just may erase your craving too (and if not, at least you got rid of some plaque, right?).
Quick Weight Loss Tip: Brush Your Teeth originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 06:14:48.
There are lots of strange things done to mice in the name of science and here's one of them (thankfully, a helpful thing -- from the mice's point of view). Researchers have long known that old mice produce more stem cells (and other cells too) than young mice, but many of them are faulty. So they decided to join the blood supply of young mice to that of old mice. As a result, the older mice were able to improve their production of essential cells that are often implicated in various aging processes. This could point to an increased understanding of aging and some new ideas about what we can do about it.
Read More: Why We Age
Binding Blood of Young and Old Mice Helps Aging originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 16:11:11.
Could simply being bored shorten your life expectancy? IN a study in the U.K., British civil service workers were asked if they had felt bored at work in the past month (along with tons of other questions). Those that said yes had an increased risk of dying from a heart problem. Researchers think that boredom may be linked to depression or other factors that would result in people just not taking good care of themselves.
Of course, everyone is bored sometimes -- researchers think that chronic boredom may have the biggest impact on health. Meanwhile, I have to wonder if there is something innately British about this question and how people answer it. I wonder if boredom (and boredom thresholds) are cultural and if the results would be found in other workplaces and countries (after all, they were interviewing British civil servants who (no offense) do not sound like that have a very exciting job.
Read the article here.
Being Bored May Shorten Your Life originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 16:19:41.
I try to be fair in my coverage of healthy living and longevity -- so I am going to write about a study that showed that about 5% of people (in the study, that is) did not really improve their cardiovascular health with exercise. Researchers believe that these folks might have an underlying genetic disposition that just means they don't improve the maximum amount of oxygen (their VO^2 max - a measure of cardiovascular fitness) with jogging or swimming. The researchers even identified the genes behind this. Does that mean 5% of people shouldn't bother exercising? No -- but perhaps certain types of exercise aren't so beneficial for them.
The full study can be found in this month's Journal of Applied Physiology.
Is Exercise Always Good? originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 12:17:12.
Most everyone knows the dangers of smoking. We can all intuitively appreciate the dangers of second hand smoke (breathing in the smoke from a person near you who is smoking). But researchers are just now beginning to understand the dangers of third hand smoke.
What is Third Hand Smoke?
Third hand smoke is traces cigarette or cigar use that remain in the environment after a person has put out the cigarette or cigar. What happens is that the smoke interacts with surfaces in the environment to produce something called tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). These TSNAs are cancer-causing agents, TSNAs can linger in a environment for weeks or more, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science online on Feb 8 by Hugo Destaillatas and others.
This is just one more reason to stop smoking and to not hang out in environments in which people have been smoking (like cars and bars).
More on Smoking and Longevity
Third Hand Smoke, an Under-Recognized Health Danger originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 12:59:32.
It is an unfortunate (and unfair) truth that just because a person haas diabetes doesn't mean he or she doesn't have to deal with all the other aging problems. In fact, diabetes can make some aging problems worse.
What to do? Take a proactive approach and do everything you can to live a long and healthy life with diabetes. Start with this list of ten actions - master them and you'll be well on your way . . .
10 Life Extenders for Diabetics
10 Life Extenders for Diabetics originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 14:10:08.
Aging is bad enough, but we don't have to encourage it. Your smile is a bit of a window into your age -- if you can avoid some bad habits, you can keep your smile looking young and, in turn, you'll look and feel younger too.
More on Smile Aging
5 Smile Aging Habits to Avoid originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 14:10:02.
We've already known that exercising tends to keep cells younger, but more research confirms this. Researchers found that people who are middle-aged who exercised lots (like running more than 45 miles a week) had cells the same "age" as younger people (around 30 years younger).
How do you tell how "old" a cell is? You look at its telomeres. Each time a cell divides, a tiny piece of DNA gets lost. Luckily, cell DNA has a "buffer" of nonsense DNA, called temomeres, that it can afford to lose. When the cell runs out of telomeres, it can no longer reproduce and "dies."
The middle aged runners' cells had telomere length similiar to people 30 years younger.
Read more on Exercise and Cell Aging
Exercise Keeps Cells Young originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 11:30:38.
New York City is doing pretty good these days. The life expectancy for someone born in New York City is 79.4 years - an increase of 5 months over 2006 and 19 months over 2001. This is longer than the average life expectancy for the U.S. which is around 77.9 years (note: these numbers are difficult to compare because they use different datasets - but you get the idea: New Yorkers are doing pretty good).
The credit for the improvement goes to less smoking, healthier lifestyles and injury prevention.
Calculate Your Life Expectancy
New York City Hits Record Life Expectancy originally appeared on About.com Longevity on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 15:56:24.
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