HEALTH, FOOD, NUTRITION, and SUPPLEMENTS

[SPARK]

Has Man Finally Found The Secret of Immortality?


There is a recent discovery about the lengthening of telomeres through the use of a substance from a plant. Scientists all over the world are excited, and their hopes of unlocking the mystery of immortality are very high.

This phytochemical, known as astragaloside IV, is an extract from a Chinese herb called astralagus. Another company calls it TA-65 or Telomerase Activator 65. Theses extracts activate the telomerase in the body. It was proven in some experiments that these extracts can reverse the reduction of the length of telomeres during cell division. Scientists believe that this substance can extend the length of telomeres.

Telomeres are the end caps of chromosomes in DNA helix strands that prevent the chromosomes from fusing or joining together that may result to chromosomal abnormalities. It also prevents the cell from replicating continuously that may lead to carcinogenesis.

Telomeres are non-coding DNA that are normally composed of 8000 bases of DNA sequence repeats TTAGGG during birth. This number is reduced to 3000 bases at age 35 and becomes 1500 bases at age 65 and above. From age 35 up to 65, the length of telomeres are reduced at a rate of 50 bases per year.

The length of telomere is gradually shortened every time the cell divides. When the Hayflick limit of about 60 to 80 cell divisions is reached, the telomere unfolds from its closed structure, and the cell detects this uncapping as DNA damage which signals it to enters cellular senescence, growth arrest or apoptosis. This gradual reduction of the length of telomeres is the natural biological process we call aging.

The length of telomeres are extended by telomerase, a reverse transcriptase enzyme known as TERT or Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase. This enzyme is a ribonucleoprotein complex composed of protein component and RNA primer sequence. It is this template RNA known as TERC or Telomerase RNA Component in telomerase that contains the DNA sequence repeats TTAGGG. Telomerase extends the length of telomeres by adding these TTAGGG to the 3' end strand of the telomere regions. This action ‘immortalized’ the cells to preserve youthfulness.

But unfortunately, telomerase extension of telomeres is switched off in humans. This may be due to various detrimental factors that have greatly degraded the quality of life through the years. Not only is it switched off, but it sometimes causes the abnormal mutations of cells that lead to the start of cancer or carcinogenesis.

The effective destruction of this abnormal telomerase activity during cell mutation can be a solution to the total eradication of all forms of cancer. Scientists are focusing their studies on how to totally eradicate all forms of cancer and to completely stop the process of aging through telomerase.

Let us hope that TA-65 or astragaloside IV will indeed effectively activate the telomerase to lengthen the telomeres without creating any abnormality in the cells or in the body as a whole. It is precarious, and the boundary between immortality and carcinogenesis is dangerously thin to be tampered with.

Has man finally found the secret of immortality? The answer is still a resounding No! Telomerase may be able to extend man’s life to 100, 500 or even 1,000 years, but he is still eventually bound to die. Man was created perfect, but he was not created immortal. Even angels are not immortal. There is only one that is immortal, and that is God.