Telomeres move to center stage

When I got into my car to head for the gym early this morning I was amazed to hear on Public Radio that Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine for the work they have done in telomere biology and the enzyme telomerase that activates telomeres and prevents them from shortening. Telomeres are the end caps of genetic material found on the tips of our chromosomes. As telomeres shorten our cells age and we age. Shortened telomeres are correlated with many conditions of aging besides aging itself, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, diabetes and even the physical signs of aging - such as wrinkles. Telomerase may prevent this.

In January of this year I became a consultant for TA Sciences in New York. TA Sciences is the only company in the world that has a nutraceutical (TA-65) that activates telomerase and prevents telomeres from shortening. The goal at TA Sciences is to improve their clients' health and slow the aging process by activating telomerase. After becoming their consultant I became a client and have been on TA-65 since. I am proud to say that I am one of very few physicians in the country that has become a TA Sciences' Licensee and I can now sell TA-65 to my patients in my healthy aging practice.

After hearing the news this morning, TA Sciences' founder, Noel Patton said "It is particularly gratifying that the field of telomere science has achieved such monumental acclaim today."

I believe that today's news can only help spread the word about TA-65. The Nobel-winning work was groundbreaking and brilliant but the practical application of its import can really only be measured in terms of its effect on the health of humans who suffer the consequences of aged, shortened telomeres.

Maybe now that the scientific community has deemed Telomere Biology worthy of the Nobel Prize the science of healthy aging will move into the realm of mainstream scientific interest.

Jeffry S. Life, MD, PhD