Simple blood test can determine how long you have left to live
by Michael Krebs
A simple blood test that measures the length of telomeres will be able to determine with accuracy how much longer an individual has to live, but ethical and legal questions abound.
A new blood test that is expected to be widely available over the next five to ten years will be able to determine with a high degree of accuracy the speed within which an individual is aging, The Independent reported on Monday.
The relatively simple test analyzes the length of one’s telomeres, collections of DNA codes at the tips of the chromosomes.
Telomeres have been directly linked to the secrets of aging and to our propensity to get cancer; they protect the chromosomes and make it possible for our cells to multiply. “Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces because they prevent chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other, which would scramble an organism’s genetic information to cause cancer, other diseases or death,” the University of Utah’s Genetic Science Learning Center states on their web site. “Yet, each time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter. When they get too short, the cell no longer can divide and becomes inactive or ‘senescent’ or dies.”
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by Michael Krebs A simple blood test that measures the length of telomeres will be able to determine with accuracy how much longer an individual has to live, but ethical and legal questions abound.
A new blood test that is expected to be widely available over the next five to ten years will be able to determine with a high degree of accuracy the speed within which an individual is aging, The Independent reported on Monday.
The relatively simple test analyzes the length of one’s telomeres, collections of DNA codes at the tips of the chromosomes.
Telomeres have been directly linked to the secrets of aging and to our propensity to get cancer; they protect the chromosomes and make it possible for our cells to multiply. “Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces because they prevent chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other, which would scramble an organism’s genetic information to cause cancer, other diseases or death,” the University of Utah’s Genetic Science Learning Center states on their web site. “Yet, each time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter. When they get too short, the cell no longer can divide and becomes inactive or ‘senescent’ or dies.”
Read more:
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