More on Telomeres Telomerase Supplements and Cancer

I have written a ton on these topics before and I refer you to here for more background.

Briefly:

Telomeres are small segments of DNA at the end of every chromosome. They function like biologic time clocks determining when a cell will die. They are very sensitive to life style, toxins, stress, diet, supplements and nutrition, sleep deprivation and sedentary behavior.

Of the half dozen or so supplements that make claims to influence your telomere length, only TA-65 has any human data that suggests efficacy..

There is also an ongoing debate about the role of telomeres and telomerase in cancer which spills over needlessly into the supplement discussion.

Here that is in a nutshell:

Some scientists believe that telomere shortening and cell death is “anti-cancer” because a cell with short telomeres is more likely to have genetic mistakes encoded in its DNA.

Other scientists believe that restoration of telomere length may foster repair of the genome in much the same way that fixing “cancerous mitochondria” may revert the cell back to health. I am one of those and I base my feelings on the work of Maria Blasco who showed that increasing telomerase levels extended lifespan in mice without any increases in cancer incidence. I also postulate that all other areas of cellular aging had to improve such as mitochondrial function, intracellular junk clearing and epigentic marks or the animals could not have lived longer.  Sadly the study was not powered to “prove “ that but I sincerely doubt you could have an animal live longer without at least arresting those problems if not reversing them.

Almost all human cancers have short telomeres on average.  More importantly it may not take an average drop in telomere length to cause or facilitate cancer. More likely a few critically short telomeres on the “wrong” chromosome are enough.

The reason we do not yet have an answer is because the technology that is used in many studies to assay telomere length is not capable of giving us that data. As more and more people use the Life Length assay we will get more data.  At some point I hope the scientific community will universally switch over the way many anti-aging docs like me have.

Approximately 85% of human cancers deal with short telomeres by massive increases in the enzyme telomerase.  I have to say it: that means that 15% do not and they use a non-telomerase based mechanism to extend their telomeres.

This has led some people to worry about increasing telomerase with supplements.  Won’t this increase the risk of cancer or worsen a cancer if you have it?

Not likely to both statements.  Cancerous transformation is not and never has been dependent on telomerase. Once you have cancer the cancer will hijack telomerase for its own purposes to a degree that makes adding a telomerase activator inconsequential.  Indeed several clinicians have added things like TA-65 to their cancer patients’ routines to try and preserve the health of the immune system which universally takes a pounding from both cancer and cancer treatments.

This approach remains unstudied.

Here is another related observation.  First cancers beget second cancers. There is now growing evidence and interest in this linkage.  It appears that the shorter your telomeres are when you get your first cancer, the more likely you are to get a recurrence.  The problem is the timing of the studies has usually been after treatment so no one knows if the short telomeres were the result of “bad luck” as in you were born with shorter telomeres, or whether they were the result of the chemo and radiation these people got during treatment.

So we are left with a very basic notion you have heard before: Take care of your Telomeres!!!!

I offer a few options for you here:

TA-65

Telomere Edge Packs

Ultra 85 Fish Oil

I am one of those who feels very strongly about these associations and I am not willing to let a chance go by to influence them.

You must decide for yourself.

Best,

Dr Dave

The Ketogenic Diet Part 2 Some Whats and Whys

Ok today I am going to get into more detail and real experiences for you. I feel compelled to tell you that many other people including some famous and not so famous doctors have endorsed the Ketogenic Diet in its various forms.

The Calorie Restricted Ketogenic Diet is very specific in its application.  It is meant to be utilized as adjunct therapy for cancer.  The cancer preventative aspects of it are very sound scientifically and I will get into them again (I mentioned them in Part 1).  Above and beyond everything else I say here I need you to read and re read this at least 10X:

The words “cancer preventative” have not been tested or proven in human beings.  There is no evidence to suggest that this diet works as advertised and proving or disproving it would be virtually impossible since you would need lifelong studies of people living in a totally controlled environment with some doing the diet and others eating differently.

This is very much the same thing I say when people ask me, “Does TA-65 prolong life” or the corollary, “Does telomerase activation and telomere lengthening prolong life.”

The answer for ALL the same reasons is, “We are not likely to ever know for sure because the study that would PROVE it to everyone is impossible to do!”

So now that I told you that the “cancer preventative diet” is more or less an educated crap shot you might want to know why I tried it.

Refer back to Part 1 for some of the motivations but here is the nutshell:

It is 7 days of my life 2x a year.  If it works that is a small price to pay.  If it doesn’t well then I learned a ton and it didn’t kill me to skip eating for a week!

OK here is the “why it should work” part again.

Cancer cells are different than regular cells in several ways.  The most erudite voices of these hallmarks are Drs. Weinberg and Hanahan who note 6 major differences.  They also recently added metabolic defects after the fact in a tip of the hat to Dr Seyfried.

One of the ways that cancer cells are different is how they process energy. All cancers have this difference although the degree to which they exhibit it varies from tumor to tumor. The simplest way to explain it is cancer does not use oxygen or fuel sources the way regular cells do.

In particular cancer cells seem unable to metabolize fat well and instead prefer glucose (sugar).  This is the real reason sugar feeds cancer!* Of course there is a continuum and some cancers do use fats and not sugars but generally speaking the more “cancer like” cells behave and the nastier cancer behaviors they exhibit the more they are likely to prefer glucose and be slowed, stopped or even killed by glucose starvation.

The Calorie Restricted Ketogenic Diet (CRKD) is designed to do 2 things: It lowers blood sugar depriving cancer cells of their fuel and it feeds regular cells ketone bodies which allow them to thrive while the cancer cells are starved out. So it selectively targets cancer cells and preserves regular cells in a way that no chemo or radiation currently can! That is its sole purpose.

Now a word on other Ketogenic Diets.  It is not necessary to severely restrict calories to treat epilepsy or other conditions.  It is not necessary to severely restrict calories to induce ketogenesis/ketosis although I sincerely doubt the highly touted fat burning that supposedly occurs during these diets happens if you don’t reduce calories.

I am convinced that the “HCG” diet that is/was so popular works because of ketogenesis and severe calorie restriction, and has nothing to do with appetite suppression from HCG.

With any kind of SEVERE calorie restriction you can induce ketogenesis/ketosis even if you eat nothing but carbs. But you will not create the necessary low blood sugars you need to theoretically starve cancer cells. Your blood sugars will remain normal. Ketone bodies will appear in your blood anytime you go way below your needed calorie requirements. This is your body burning fat to supply the extra calories.

But before you go off and try this by eating nothing but a couple hundred calories in fruit and candy bars know this: The preferential use of ketones by your body depends not just on calories but the amount of glucose that is available from you food and other sources ( liver glycogen, gluconeogenesis etc).  Your body will make ketones and use some of them but as long as there is sugar there it will use that first.

If you really want to get the full benefits of this diet you should have BOTH ketosis and hypoglycemia.

Now hypoglycemia is an evil word.  It makes us tired light headed hungry irritable or worse it can kill some people right?!!!

Well maybe but the most interesting thing about the CRKD is that ketosis suppresses almost all of the effects of hypoglycemia including and especially the hunger.  This is personal experience talking. For most of the entire 7 day period I was NOT HUNGRY and if I got a little bit hungry at all simply filling my belly with a big glass of lemon water put a stop to it.

This complete lack of hunger is the big secret shocker I alluded to at the end of Part 1.  I expected to be miserably hungry.  I was totally wrong about that.

Ok now I want tell you how I actually did things.  At this point I have to admit failure at least to a degree. Dr Seyfried’s book talks about a 7 day water only fast in addition to other versions of the Ketogenic Diet.  It was my intention to do this because frankly it was the simplest thing to do.  You just don’t eat anything and drink water.  You don’t have to count calories because water has none. You don’t have to count carbs because water has none.  So Simple!

Well that proved impossible for me to do even for one of the 7 days. It was not the hunger so much as the need for a flavor or a texture other than plain water in my mouth. I will tell you that I don’t think I could do water only unless I were truly starving and had nothing else around me. That said I think my diet was a success because of the numbers I generated and of course all the things I learned.

And that will be where we pick up the next blog my friend!

Doc

Please note do not try this diet without medical supervision. If you are a Type 1 diabetic do not try this diet ever.  If you are Type 2 make sure you have strict medical supervision on a daily basis to do this and follow your blood sugars very carefully.

The Ketogenic Diet- My Personal Experience- The Epic Saga Part 1

Are Ketogenic Diets the next big trend?  We’ve seen gluten free and Paleo explode and be monetized in the Crossfit and Running communities so it is not an impossible thing!

It has always been interesting to me how diets come and diets go.  Most of the dietary trends we experience these days have their roots in our past, sometimes our distant past.

The Ketogenic diet was around as a therapeutic tool for epilepsy and other maladies since the 1920’s. Its forefather, extended fasting, has been around since as long as mankind.  Extended fasting was no doubt practiced by our Paleolithic ancestors out of necessity- they simply lacked food sources from time to time.  Somewhere after the agrarian age took hold and we began to cultivate grains some 10,000 years ago fasting took on religious connotations which are still practiced today.

Without launching into my usual diatribe about how I never liked all the stuff that gets hung onto certain practices by crazy people I will simply say I never understood the need for extended fasting other than for religious purposes in today’s society.

It has only been recently that there has been enough science to make me curious about the health benefits of this practice.  It always seemed that the wack jobs were the ones telling you how great it was too fast for long periods of time. That said, there are still plenty of wacky people who claim all kinds of non religious but “spiritual” purification effects of fasting.

If that is a wholisticky way of saying you recycle your mitochondria and get rid of sick cells then I get it.

As an objective science guy I can sorta kinda see why now that I have experienced what ketosis does to your mind and your thinking first hand, but my own personal reasons were scientific curiosity and of course my typical “I wanted to see if I could do it!” mentality.

OK, now some nuts and bolts.

In its simplest form the ketogenic diet is a diet that forces your body to use fat breakdown products known as ketone bodies as its primary fuel instead of carbohydrate derived sugars. It is by needs a very low carb diet because your body is super efficient at using even the teeny tiniest amounts of carbohydrates as its preferred fuel.

Important fact: Excess calories are stored as fat, no matter what food group they come from (carbs proteins or fats).

By getting rid of carbs as an easy source of energy and keeping your calories at least under control in terms of what your body actually needs to maintain its metabolism you will be able to dig into your fat stores. Thus the Ketogenic Diet has often been referred to as the “Fat Burning Diet”.

In its most famous form it became known as the “Atkin’s Diet” though the “classic” ketogenic diet is significantly different from Atkins.

So let’s talk about those classifications and how they apply.  By playing with the mix and sources of fats and proteins you get the various types of Ketogenic Diets- classic, Atkin’s modified Atkins and MCT oil (medium chain triglyceride) diets.

I am not going to dwell on any of these finer points because the Ketogenic Diet I chose was not any of them. But all Ketogenic Diets have a few things in common: they are relatively low in carbs and they all force your body to run on ketone bodies.

Starvation by Any Other Name!

I chose to do a severely Calorie Restricted Ketogenic diet. Some would call it a “modified starvation diet” which in point of fact is what it was.   Starvation in this case means that if I would have stayed on that particular diet I would have starved. Modified, to me anyway means, I did it by personal choice and I chose the sources for the paltry amounts of calories I was taking in.

You could call it Taking one on the chin (or in the Gut!) for Science

OK if you’ve gotten this far I am guessing you might be wondering why I would choose this most difficult of diets other than mild insanity.

Blame it all on Thomas Seyfried!

Thomas Seyfried has recently written a very compelling book on the origins of Cancer called “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease” in which he suggests a very low calorie Ketogenic Diet as therapy and here is the key word- prevention*- for cancer.

I loved this book on many levels. The biggest one is that it actually gave fairly specific “cancer prevention” recommendations* I read it once. Pulled a ton of reference articles and am reading it in detail.  Now here’s the thing. YOU need a strong and fairly recent background in biochemistry or this book will be above your pay grade. Not trying to insult you just being honest.

Also like most hard core science books it’s not inexpensive retailing for around $150 bucks. So be honest with yourself and your level of interest and specific education before you pony up here. For me personally it was probably the most impactful science book I have read in the past 12 months and I read a lot! Let me also say that I am not 100% convinced of everything said in this book but I am convinced it is of great merit for anyone interested in avoiding cancer and staying young as long as possible!

OK on to the meat of the matter.

Warburg revisited.

Dr Seyfried basically revisits the work of German Scientist Otto Warburg as it relates to cancer metabolism. Dr Seyfried not only believes Warburg was correct but has spent a significant amount of his career trying to prove it and improve upon Warburg’s theories. As such he flies directly in the face of the past 50 years of cancer research by stating that the genetic basis for cancer is misplaced and has wasted years and billions of dollars looking for a cure where one does not exist.*

I am just an anti-aging and regenerative medicine guy- not a cancer expert. But if Seyfried is correct then everything I’ve ever read and been taught about cancer is at best only partially correct.  I thought it might be prudent to find out more about this before I spend another bunch of money on cancer books!

The basic premise is that cancer need glucose to thrive and grow. Because of defects in its mitochondrial power houses, cancer cannot survive well or at all on ketone bodies. The combination of low calories and ketone bodies for a period of time should starve cancer cells while allowing normal healthy cells to do just fine.

On a cellular level it should also help select out sick mitochondrial power houses that were heading toward non cancerous fates as well.  The actual diseases associated with that situation are things like Chronic Fatigue, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Parkinson and Alzheimer Disease.  This by the way is only briefly alluded to in Dr Siegfried’s book.  Another book which is different in that it is awfully written and one I cannot recommend for anyone but the most hard core gluttons for punishment called “Acquired Mitochondropathy etc” delves into this.

OK I admit it.  I read stuff like this.  I pull hundreds of references from the bibliography sections of these and other books and read them down to the minutest details. Then and only then do I try them on myself. After that I tell you about it if it seems relevant to staying young and healthy.

Stem cells and TA-65 anyone!

After 270 plus pages of arguments, pathways, scientific dissertations, Dr Seyfried’s book meanders a bit to the topic of what he would recommend you and I do for “cancer prevention”.

My take on it was going on a water only diet for 7 days.

That will be the topic of the rest of this blog series including numbers, triumphs and failures.

To whet your appetite I will tell you this: yes I did lose some weight, and the rest of it was completely different than I would have anticipated.  I will also tell you I was completely wrong about something.

I should also tell you I did the unthinkable: I reduced my Fish Oil dose!!!!  Can you figure out why?

Stay tuned more to come! (Continued with:  The thinking behind the Ketogenic Diet)

Dr Dave

*This blog and Dr Seyfried’s book are not to be interpreted as cures, mitigations or treatments for anything. Always consult your own personal physician for medical advice including dietary recommendations. That said I would personally recommend you buy all the physicians you like a copy of “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease” especially if you know any oncologists!!!!

I also want to thank Dr Seyfried for having the balls to not mince words and say it like he sees it. Right or wrong a man of conviction is worth a listen!

TTAGGG You’re It! Stress, Disease and Telomere Length

The repeating sequence of the Telomere-TTAGGG has proven to be a gold mine for determining biologic age ( how old your body is acting!) and disease prognosis ( how bad you are likely to get something) as well as the effects of stress.

A recent study on the effects of racism on the telomere length of black men was the latest to show how social stress can affect longevity.  I have concerns about how the study was done but I think it makes sense to say that this kind of stress is detrimental to anyone’s health no matter what race or color.

This study builds on previous studies done in orphans who grew up with universally shorter telomeres than non orphans,  and the effects of stress on caregivers responsible for sick children.  All of these situations lead to more rapid aging and faster decline.  You can bet being sick in general can shorten your telomeres and your life.

This was shown by another study involving men between 50 and 75 who were admitted with ACS, acute coronary syndrome. Basically they were on their way to having a heart attack and no doubt some of them did.  The ones with the shortest telomeres did worse.

This study echoes the now famous Farezeneh Far, Blackburn study that showed that Omega 3 (fish oil) levels were protective of telomeres in heart disease.

So it seems everyone is linking just about everything bad that can happen to you to short telomeres and everything good to long telomeres.

It would be a good time for me to mention that other diseases of aging like Cancer and Alzheimer Disease ( yes they dropped the ‘s!) are also linked to telomere length in terms of incidence and severity.

Now there is still a lot of disagreement among researching scientists as to whether telomere loss is actually all that important in aging.  This pretty much depends on what their pet project is and where their grant money comes from.

I have a simple ( my PhD colleagues would say simplistic!) way of explaining this. My friend Maria Blasco did a study recently that showed that turning on telomerase extends life span in adult and old adult mice.  That was the end point of the study.  There are many other people out there looking at things like intracellular junk (lipofuscin) mitochondrial function, calorie restriction, sirtuin proteins and mTOR inhibitors.  None of these strategies have been shown by themselves to lengthen life although some of them seem to improve health.

I am certain that ALL of these things were improved by telomerase activation or the mice would not have lived longer.  You can’t live longer with declining mitochondria, abnormal proteins and increasing intracellular junk.  It’s simply not possible.  But because these things were not specifically measured common sense takes a back seat to scientific skepticism.

Here’s the thing: They would rather remain skeptical than investigate these questions probably because their grand money does not include answering these questions.  It does involve protecting their source of income for their pet project however.

Here’s another thing: as I said above Telomerase Activation seems to be the only current feasible way to extend life in mammals.  The folks spending time on all that other stuff have been unable to demonstrate increased longevity AND healthspan.

Want it to be even more simple?

I will quote that bastion of American Health who brought us the great Dr Oz.

Yes, I am talking about Oprah who said “I want long telomeres!” She should be on TA-65!

You probably should too!

I am entering year 5 with nothing but positive improvements in both telomere length and % of short telomeres. Both are going the right way for decreasing biologic age.

What is youth worth to you?

Doc

PS what I have said here is especially important if YOU are under constant or severe stress, get sick a lot or have a family history of one of those nasty diseases above!

2013 The Year in Review

First let me wish the Happiest of New Years and a phenomenal 2014. I can tell you that if 2013 is any indication, 2014 will be spectacular.

And speaking of 2013 I want to give you a brief perspective on this passing year from Dr Dave’s Best point of view both in terms of accomplishments and some personal stuff as well.

As always I like to start with a broad associative allegory about something I have learned and something I have sought.

Several hundred years ago there was a brilliant French essayist named Montaigne. He wrote about many things in such a succinct fashion that I have often sought his counsel through his work during my adult life time.

One characteristic he wrote about struck a chord with me in recent years: Equanimity. I made it a point in my New Year’s resolutions to seek it out and I can tell you that after 2 years of “asking” I think I found it in recent months and will only build on it.

My version of Equanimity is being balanced and centered in the knowledge of who I am and what I am to do here on this earth. Because of it the ups and down, the ebbs and flows and the fractal nature of life and time are more easy to walk through on an even plane.

Sound complicated? Just think balanced no matter what comes your way and you’ll have it. Trust me it’s a good place to be.

It is also the thing that allows me to tell you with 100% certainty that you are going to enjoy this next year with me if you chose to do so because massive break throughs are coming.

But let’s not forget 2013, so here we go.

In the earliest part of the year and leading in from December 2012 we introduced RG Stem Cell Activating Serum.  At the same time we also introduced the newly revised and redesigned Telomere Edge Packs. Each represented a never before created achievement and brought the promise of telomere preservation and stem cell activation within the reach of everyone on the list.

In March I reintroduced a product I had been sitting on for over 2 years, Ultra 85 fish oil. The ‘world debut’ of the product happened 7 weeks later at David Wolfe’s Longevity Now Conference. The great ironies of this were two: first this is where the product was originally introduced 2 years prior but because of the production costs we could not yet sustain its manufacture, next UPS lost our entire shipment.  You might have guessed that we were able to figure out how to make the product affordable both to us and the public. You might not have guessed that even in its absence, we sold out of the entire batch that would have arrived and filled those orders from our warehouse stock a few days later.

Immediately upon my return I introduced our contest which you can still participate in.  I can recall having an epiphany when I asked, “How do I get people excited about this contest and wanting to participate?”  You see back in the day when I first started rewards and free stuff was all the enticement one needed. Now 13 years later people are jaded and over marketed on the internet and I bet if I promised a million dollar reward no one would even read it! So I decided to tell everyone who joins the contest the main reason I wake up every morning.  To do research on products that will improve your life.

That seemed to be enough to get people moving because they understood they would directly benefit from the effort.

Two months later I was in Canada coaching my sister on her first Canadian Death Race and by the end of the month I was in the company of one Laurel Sander OMD getting healed big time at a full-fledged cleansing retreat. You can see some pics from my most recent trip there a few weeks ago. Suffice it to say the healing took and after 3 years of lower than desired physical activity I am back to my old self again. Now understand this is the culmination of a lot of things I do.  If you have followed me for any length of time you know I ask a lot of my mind and body and I am happy to say it’s delivering again.

During this time I also had my telomeres measured several times in both peripheral white blood cells and in my stem cells.  The later results are part of one of the studies I am currently doing so I cannot divulge that info but my peripheral cells gained over 600 base pairs using 2 separate assays and my immune profile has improved dramatically as well- all from taking TA-65 and the Telomere Edge Packs.  Depending on what you want to use as a starting point I have reversed the aging process in this most important cellular compartment by anywhere from 6 to 10 years.  The remarkable thing is I see it and feel it in my mind, my body and my performance. I am getting YOUNGER!!!

Now the skeptics among the world have said, “OK big shot you talk a good game now let’s see the numbers!  Why won’t you show us the numbers?”  So in a rare bow to peer pressure I have decided that I will reveal all the numbers on their official report sheets so all the naysayers can shut up ( hint that will never happen no matter what proof I offer LOL). But I do ask one favor in return after I do this.  People seem to love to call me on my credentials which are in fact a matter of public record if certain skeptics would get off their lazy asses and do a minimal amount of research. Again it’s much easier and more authoritative to simply fire it off as a command and hope I jump when you say how high than it is to type in “google”. But I will do the work just this once but in return I ask the following: There are a lot of big named people out there that you trust just based on their web popularity. So ASK THEM TO PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS AND SHOW YOU THEIR TELOMERE LENGTHS.   I can tell you that more than one of them has done the test and been angry and shocked that their results sucked! Ask them and you’ll get a bunch of BS excuses about how the test is not accurate. The test is deadly accurate but the way they live their lives and their own information is faulty in terms of your health and longevity.

There I said it. Now you figure out who I am talking about and demand the same accountability from them. And while you are busy waiting for what will never come I will remain totally transparent because your life and your decisions depend on it.

That brings us to the late summer early fall when the next RG products arrived from the lab: The Booster, The Cleanser and the Blemish Cream. If you have not seen the videos on these products they can be found here on YouTube.

Also available there is the complete teleseminar on omega 3’s. If you have ever been confused about everything you hear about fish oil this is a great way to get the real truth. The difference between this and the marketing hype is I show you the actual biochem texts, articles and the results of over 150 Omega 6/3 ratio tests I have done.  I have honestly never seen anyone else try to back up what they say this way. Pretty sure the reason is they can’t but you be the judge!

And while you are on YouTube you can see me getting my telomeres tested on several different occasions, testing Omega 6/3 ratios and reviewing the honest data on krill, triglyceride fish oil and generally debunking myths left and right!

From September through December the work you did during the contest paid off. I was able to do additional research on telomere length and stem cells which has never been done. It will be at least another 6 months before the results are in but I will be once again in Mexico treating myself in a few weeks. By being the guinea pig here I am doing the kind of research you should be demanding of any internet doc who claims he is pioneering and cutting edge.

The same stem cell team I employ for the research just gave me the preliminary findings on RG cell serum and booster and showed that we are increasing youthful collagen production in skin fibroblasts. I will have the final report out to you in January 2014.

I will also continue to test these products for stem cell activation.

Speaking of products I have at least 2 new ones slated for release in the next 60 days so stay tuned!

Now a little personal info.  I have continued to meet speak with and learn from the best and brightest on the planet and that continues to be reflected in my newsletters and blogs.

And that is a lucky thing for you and me!

Happy New Year!!!!

Doc

Are You Immune to Aging

Telomeres are the end segments of every chromosome that function as a biologic time clock. Their overall length and health determines how long your cells will live.

Over the past few years it has become more and more common to measure telomere length in blood cells, specifically white blood cells that represent your immune system. Lately with the advent of the HT Q FISH technology from Life Length this type of measurement has become accurate enough for doctors and individuals who are simply interested in their health to use for monitoring purposes.

But in all this there was very fortunate accident. The cells chosen in blood were picked for 3 main reasons.

1)      They were easy to get.  A simple blood draw and you have everything you need without having to biopsy some major tissue.

2)      Unlike Red Blood Cells, the white blood cells have a nucleus and that means they have DNA. That also means they have telomeres at the end of the segments of DNA in those white blood cells that can be measured.

3)      White blood cells are turned over rapidly and are constantly being produced. To help with this process they have an enzyme that is active pretty much only in rapidly dividing cells. This enzyme is called telomerase.  Telomerase turns out to also be a major key to longevity and health span as well.

So the bottom line is the measurement of Your telomeres in the blood shows the status of your immune health in many ways. Positive changes in immune health have been associated in 3 different types of studies using the telomerase activator TA-65.

Specifically human cell culture studies, animal studies and human studies have shown a positive response in the form of strengthening the immune system.  Independent questionnaires I have done and others have done have shown this as well: immune strengthening means far less coughs and colds!

A study recently released from the University of Utah showed this correlation as well. Longer telomeres= stronger immune system= less sickness!

So now we have a couple of interesting points by way of review.

1)      You can measure your telomere length in an effective accurate way using Life Length HT-QFISH technology.

2)      You can equate this telomere length to a bunch of different things including how long you might actually be able to live* and especially how strong your immune system is**.

3)      You can potentially strengthen your immune system with TA-65.

By now you might be wondering OK but what is really the big deal about the immune system other than coughs and colds?

The answer lies in the predictive value of your immune system health in terms of your overall health and quite possibly your longevity.

Let’s take the average American. One thing we can say for sure is that the average citizen of this country is way too low in Omega 3 fats and thus is walking around in an inflamed state. We can also equate this inflammation to America’s number one killer- heart disease, and a whole host of other “age related” diseases.  I put that in quotes because some of you may know I think that aging IS THE DISEASE and telomere lengths is kinda like the cholesterol test of aging.

The average American being inflamed has an immune system problem. His or her own body is targeting itself. The immune system is slowly damaging areas where it should not and less able to work where it is needed. That is not a healthy Immune System.  Now that does indeed show up in telomere length tests when you look at people with heart disease. Perhaps even more ironic is the significant effect of TA-65 on cholesterol. ***

What is the next hit our immune systems take? Answer: chronic and acute viral infections.  You may not have or even know what things like EBV, CMV or HIV are, but as chronic viruses that overwork the immune system or in some cases poison it they represent a major risk to health.

But to a lesser degree so do things like the flu and other seasonal viruses. If you are an adult your immune system should be able to fight off even new strains of flu and not make you sick. Instead we have to rely on flu shots and other methods of defense.  When we get the flu we are often sick for a lot longer than the infection should last. That represents your immune system trying to recover from the insult. If it’s weak you can very well wind up with bacterial pneumonia or some other infection following the flu.  One in three people who are reading this blog know exactly what I am talking about because they have been sick for months following a flu infection.

OK that is infectious illness, age related disease, and aging overall.

Then there is the special case of cancer which strikes through “immune holes”.  The Immune Surveillance theory of cancer is widely accepted now. It says that if your body has a healthy immune system cancer will not take root. It is only when there is a hole that it can get past that it can grow. Recently a drug for prostate cancer was approved that “programs your immune system to fight the cancer”. If this is not an acknowledgement of the Immune Surveillance Theory I don’t know what is!

So what should we really take from telomere measurements? Ideally we should understand they reflect the health of our Immune System and even if it’s just lucky that we can easily get these cells, it is a very important thing to know based on everything I just told you.

Simply put in many cases the Immune System is a primary driver in how well you age and how long you live.

Skeptical?  Watch the mortality rates from cancer and infection climb over the next 2 decades and then tell me what you think!

How can you protect your immune system and help it do its job?

Answer: Take care of Your Telomeres!

Dr Dave

Note: TA-65 is not a drug it’s a supplement. It is not FDA approved for anything and these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and probably never will be unless Big Pharma comes out with a Telomerase Activating Drug. That will not happen until the pioneers in the field do all the work for them first.

*and ** These statements are best supported by serial telomere measurements. You need more than one measurement at more than one point in time because what you are really looking for is the CHANGE in the length of your telomeres, not the absolute length. In addition the HT-QFISH technology is the only one that gives % short telomeres, another critical factor in see where YOU really stand.

*** This study is available on Pub Med released Oct 2013

Unhealthy Telomeres greatly increase the Risk of Cancer

Even though I recently released a blog that looks specifically at prostate cancer and the effect of telomere length on prognosis, I mentioned breast cancer in that blog as another form of hormonally driven cancer that shares many features behaviorally with prostate cancer.

The ink on that blog had barely dried when yet another study came out that reinforces the same basic message: short telomeres are an increased risk for cancer.

So let’s get to a few basics and then look at the “new” information.

1)      Telomeres are found at the end of the chromosome. They are relatively short segments of repetitive DNA. They have a protein complex attached to them that shelters them from damage and controls access to them. This is called “Shelterin”

2)      Telomeres function as a cellular time clock keeping track of how many times a cell has divided making new cells and how many divisions it has left. When the time runs out that cell is removed and either dies or goes into “park” for a while and dies a bit later.

3)      Both of the events in #2 involve inflammation and can cause damage to the surrounding cells. This process occurs more frequently as we age giving rise to the statement “aging is an inflammatory event!” Some researchers have called these dying cells “Zombie Cells” because they are dead and dying but also kill other healthy cells in their area.

4)      Telomerase is the enzyme that lengthens telomeres. As far as we know activating telomerase is the only feasible way to extend life span in complex mammals. Immortal non cancerous human cell lines have been created by turning on telomerase.

5)      Cancer hijacks telomerase and massively over expresses it to keep cancer cells alive and “immortal” at least until the host (hopefully not YOU!) dies.

6)      In most cases of cancer the induction of huge increases in telomerase is thought to be the “last step” in the transformation of cancer into a malignant immortal cell. This means that there are several other mutations or missteps that have to happen first. It also raises questions about the real effects of blocking telomerase as an anti-cancer therapy since all of the other steps are not blocked in this therapy and could give rise to other cancer cells that are immortal using other methods of telomere lengthening (ALT).

OK now onto the “new” information and I put it in quotes because there have been at least half a dozen scientific articles that have said this before. But that is the way science is and in most cases should be. It requires a lot of repetition and validation from the community before it is accepted.

One of the things that you may already know about breast cancer is that there is a hereditary component. The BRAC1 and BRAC2 genes have gotten a lot of press lately as more than one famous actress has had bilateral mastectomies and other operations to protect from the high risk of breast cancer associated with these genes.

But you should also know that hereditary breast cancer accounts for only 10% of breast cancers and the famous BRAC genes account for a little over half of this total. That means that 90% of breast cancers are not hereditary but more likely the result of “acquired” genomic instabilities that happen during life as a result of toxins, stresses both physical and mental and of course bad luck in the form of mistakes in DNA replication.

The one thing that hereditary breast cancers and non hereditary breast cancers have in common is an unstable genome the hall mark of which is an unnaturally short telomere. This may actually the difference between getting cancer (remember between 15 and 45% of BRAC positive women do not ever get breast cancer) and not; no one is 100% sure.

But it is a very suggestive association since non hereditary breast cancers also have short telomeres as a risk factor.

As a matter of fact nearly every major form of cancer that has been studied has an association with critically shortened telomeres and the genomic instability that comes with that condition. Numerous other conditions associated with “normal aging” including Alzheimer disease, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis are also associated with short telomeres.

Clinical trials to treat these illnesses with telomerase activation are going on or being planned as we speak.

In the meantime know that the only safe human tested telomerase activator is TA-65. I have been able to document over 3% reduction in my critically short telomere values and over 4 years a 600 base pair lengthening of my average telomere length using the “gold standard” Life Length assay, using this product in conjunction with high dose Omega 3’s (which I have used for over 10 years so it’s not likely they started working all of a sudden!) and the life style modifications detailed in our book, “The Immortality Edge”.

Because neither the government nor Big Pharma has any vested interest in anti-aging therapy the typical types of studies we have been inundated with for drugs like statins and blood pressure medicines are slow to come. Private funding is being put to work, some of it is mine, but it is not the hundreds of millions of dollars that large corporations have.  Now that Google is on board we’ll see if they can jump start the campaign.

In the meantime you may want to take a close look at my other blogs and sign up for my newsletters because I have been talking about this stuff for a long time now.  And during that time I have managed to grow younger!

Best,

Dr Dave