- Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:38 am
#28903
You may have heard some buzz lately about telomeres, and supplements that "contain telomeres" or prompt your body to produce more of them.
Do not be fooled. Although there are many good and helpful supplements out there; for every one good supplement there are ten or more complete fakes that are looking to steal your money by making up information that sounds scientific.
Telomeres are like little caps on the ends of your chromosomes. Every human cell contains 46 chromosomes, which are microscopic strands that contain your DNA--the genetic "program" that makes your body function the way that it does. Chromosomes are capable of "copying" themselves so that your body can make new cells--but they get worse and worse at it as you age.
The reason is telomeres. These protective caps get shorter and shorter each time the chromosomes copy themselves, increasing the chances that vital genetic information will be lost from the ends of the chromosome. It also increases the chance of little errors creeping in when copying happens--like a schoolchild copying something by hand who gets distracted and mixes up a letter or two here and there. The problem is, your cells are copying and dividing all the time--and the errors just keep getting reproduced and piling up. This results in many different signs of ageing and age-related diseases. That's the real science.
The junk "science" is thinking that drinking something with telomeres in it will fix yours. Even if you could get a bunch of human telomeres into a pill, your stomach would destroy them in the digestive process. Even if you injected them into you directly, they're not going to somehow undo the damage in your chromosomes that has already been done.
Scientists have only just had a small amount of success getting mice to regenerate their telomeres--human studies are years away. Don't be suckered in by crazy telomere claims!
Do not be fooled. Although there are many good and helpful supplements out there; for every one good supplement there are ten or more complete fakes that are looking to steal your money by making up information that sounds scientific.
Telomeres are like little caps on the ends of your chromosomes. Every human cell contains 46 chromosomes, which are microscopic strands that contain your DNA--the genetic "program" that makes your body function the way that it does. Chromosomes are capable of "copying" themselves so that your body can make new cells--but they get worse and worse at it as you age.
The reason is telomeres. These protective caps get shorter and shorter each time the chromosomes copy themselves, increasing the chances that vital genetic information will be lost from the ends of the chromosome. It also increases the chance of little errors creeping in when copying happens--like a schoolchild copying something by hand who gets distracted and mixes up a letter or two here and there. The problem is, your cells are copying and dividing all the time--and the errors just keep getting reproduced and piling up. This results in many different signs of ageing and age-related diseases. That's the real science.
The junk "science" is thinking that drinking something with telomeres in it will fix yours. Even if you could get a bunch of human telomeres into a pill, your stomach would destroy them in the digestive process. Even if you injected them into you directly, they're not going to somehow undo the damage in your chromosomes that has already been done.
Scientists have only just had a small amount of success getting mice to regenerate their telomeres--human studies are years away. Don't be suckered in by crazy telomere claims!
