Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Telomeres and Time: Rewind Aging

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Telomeres and Time: Rewind Aging · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

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  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: The lowest hemoglobin I have ever seen in my life.
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  That's the blood count. And this person was
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  anemic. In over 30 years of surgery, I've never
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  seen a hemoglobin that low in someone who is still
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  standing. Let me tell you about her. She is the,
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  uh, young, 20 some year old daughter of a friend
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  of mine and part of one of the more active
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  families that I know. They don't vacation to
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  relax. They vacation to move, hiking, climbing,
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  anything outdoors. And on one of those vacations,
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  she started to feel a bit winded. When she finally
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  went to the doctor, her blood count was a
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  hemoglobin of 3. Yours is probably 15. She had,
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  after many tests, a disease called aplastic
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  anemia. Her bone marrow wasn't making any new
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  blood cells. Being young and being fit probably
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  saved her life. But if we looked at her DNA back
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  then, we would have seen something else. Her
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  telomeres, those little caps at the end of her
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  chromosomes, were almost gone. Two years later,
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  she's had a bone transplant. She's thriving. She's
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  in law school. And thanks to a young man in
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  Germany who was her marrow match in modern
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  medicine that rebuilt her blood. That's what a
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  true telomere disease looks like when those
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  genetic timekeepers run out too soon.
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  But what about the rest of us? What do telomeres
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  have to do with aging? Longevity. And all those
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  supplements that promise to rewind the clock. I am
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  your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri
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  Simpson, and this is Fork you, fork University,
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  where we make sense of the madness of longevity
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  and telomeres. Bust some myths and teach you a
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  little bit about food and medicine. I want you to
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  imagine a, uh, shoelace and that little plastic
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  tip that keeps the shoelace from fraying.
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  Telomeres. Do that for your chromosomes,
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  protecting them, um, each time your cell divides.
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  But each division shortens the tip a bit.
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  Eventually, they get so short that the cell can't
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  divide anymore. That is cellular senescence or
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  cellular retirement. We heard about that talking
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  about how Leonard Hayflick discovered that
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  telomeres shorten naturally as we age. But how
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  fast they shrink depends on genetics,
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  inflammation, sleep, stress, lifestyle, and other
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  things we don't even understand yet. Elizabeth
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  Blackburn and Carol Glider won the Nobel Prize for
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  discovering telomerase, an enzyme that can rebuild
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  telomeres. Cue the headlines. Science find the key
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  to immortality. Well, not quite. Cancer cells love
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  telomerase. That's how they become immortal.
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  Cranking it up everywhere can turn back time and
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  turn on tumors. Telomeres are the popular poster
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  child. For longevity marketing, you can buy some
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  telomere length tests for a few hundred dollars
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  and a telomere supplements for a few hundred more.
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  The problem? Those tests vary widely between labs
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  and tell you trends, not your fate. And the
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  supplements? Well, let's take a closer look at
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  that. Let's start with Danazole, which is a
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  synthetic sex hormone used in inherited telomere
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  disease. Like aplastic anemia, it slows telomere
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  loss and sometimes lengthens them. But with liver
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  and lipid side effects, it's really not an anti
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  aging hack. There's another drug, a diabetes drug
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  that in one small trial increased telomere length
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  in white blood cells. Promising, but we don't know
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  that it translates at all to living longer. And
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  there's another antipsychotic drug that in lab
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  studies helped recover telomere length after
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  oxidative stress. Interesting in theory and
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  irrelevant for your supplement drug. These drugs
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  show that we can nudge telomere biology. But their
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  tools for disease, not designer longevity.
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  But let's talk about some other things. Vitamin D.
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  Vitamin D encourages telomerase activity. Long
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  term studies show that it can reduce telomere
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  shortening, keep it in the healthy range. Sunlight
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  and modest supplementation do the job. What about
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  vitamins C and E? They are antioxidants that lower
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  oxidative stress indirectly preserving telomeres.
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  But they come better from fruits and vegetables
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  and olive oil than from capsules. And there's
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  another form of vitamin E that may reverse
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  telomere loss in early cell. Interesting, not
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  proven. And then there's the all famous TA65 from
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  an Astragalus plant marketed as a telomerase
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  activator. Some small studies show modest
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  lengthening but no evidence of longer life.
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  Turning on telomerase everywhere might also turn
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  on cancer cells. And there's telomere one, which
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  is still an experiment in tissue culture. Far from
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  human use. Really interesting in a petri dish, but
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  what actually moves the needle. Large population
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  studies show that people who eat well, move often,
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  sleep enough and manage stress, have slower
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  telomere shortening, no pills required. University
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  of California San Francisco study found that
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  Mediterranean style diet plus exercise and
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  strength management increased telomerase activity
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  within months. No patent, no promo code, just
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  habits. Telomeres respond to lifestyle. They're
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  responders, but they are not drivers. Longer
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  telomeres don't guarantee longer life, they just
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  reflect how well your cells have been treated. In
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  a review of the New England Journal of Medicine
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  describes that families with true telomere
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  disease, like aplastic anemia that my friend's
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  daughter had or other forms of disease like
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  pulmonary fibrosis or dyskeratosis congenita.
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  Mutations in telomerase genes can cause these
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  conditions. Other recent studies, including
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  reviews in the Frontiers of Aging, show that
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  shorter telomeres correlate with higher risk of
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  heart disease and dementia. But correlation isn't
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  causation. Telomeres are, uh, the smoke, but not
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  always the fire. Research at the NIH and elsewhere
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  warned that measuring telomere length is tricky.
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  Different labs, different results. These biologic
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  age tests online, well, think of them as selfies
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  taken with a shaky camera from the iPhone. One and
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  another nuance. It's not the average telomere
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  length that triggers aging. It's the shortest
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  ones. Stress, inflammation and lifestyle can push
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  certain cells over the edge faster. A recent meta
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  analysis this year confirmed that people who sleep
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  well, exercise, avoid chronic stress, tend to have
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  slightly long telomeres, but the effect is small.
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  You can protect them. You can't game them. You
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  can't hijack them to make them longer or better.
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  What we know is that telomeres shorten with each
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  cell division, that lifestyle and lower
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  inflammation slow the process, and that certain
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  drugs can influence telomerase under medical
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  supervision. What we don't know is if manipulating
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  telomeres increases health span or lifespan in
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  human which interventions are safe long term, how
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  telomere biology interacts with cancer risk and
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  things to ignore. Ignore any telomere tests
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  promising to tell your biologic age, any
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  supplements claiming to reverse decades of wear
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  and tear, or influencers who say they've activated
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  telomerase. It sounds like science fiction. It
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  probably is. Telomeres aren't the hourglass of
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  life. They're mileage markers. They tell you where
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  you've been, not where you're going. So the best
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  way to protect them is a boring, proven way. Eat
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  plants and fish, move daily. Sleep well, don't
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  smoke. Keep your diet Mediterranean and your
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  expectations realistic. If you want to explore
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  real longevity science, join us for the
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  Mediterranean Longevity Cruise. In the summer of
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  2026. We'll have World class physicians,
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  scientists and a food network chef all sailing the
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  Mediterranean and talking about living longer and
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  better. No miracle molecules required. This has
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  been 4Q researched and written by me, Dr. Terry
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  Simpson, your chief medical explanationist. Audio
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  and editing done by Simpler Media and the pod God
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  of telomeres himself, Evo Terra. For references
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  shownotes, you can visit4q.com,
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  yourdoctorsorders.com and also go to my
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  substack@terry rsimpson.com and remember I am a
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  board certified physician but I am not your
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  physician. If you have medical concerns please see
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  your own board certified doctor and registered
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  dietitian, not a longevity doctor who is in a
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  functional medicine holistic nonsense. This
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  podcast is for your education entertainment. It is
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  not a prescription. Stay curious, stay skeptical,
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  keep your diet Mediterranean and hey to my
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  friend's daughter. We are so proud of you and what
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  you're doing and we are so happy that modern
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  science has kept you alive because you bring a lot
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  of joy to your parents living. I'm Dr. Simpson.
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  Have a good week everybody.
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  Hey Evo, do you remember when we thought time was
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  on our side? Turns out so did our Salomers. Good
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  thing we've still got wine, sunshine and maybe a
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  few base bears left to spare. At least I hope we
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  do. I've actually been thinking about getting an
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  extra set of base pairs. What do you think.