“Shortened telomeres can trigger the activation of tumor suppressor mechanisms, like the p53 pathway, which prevents damaged cells from proliferating.”
There may be some evidence of this in lab studies but it does not make much sense in practice.
Logically one would think from this statement, “Shortened telomeres can trigger the activation of tumor suppressor mechanisms”, that old people would have less cancer because of telomere shortening, and young people would be more prone to cancer because of their telomere length.
While some people think telomere length has nothing to do with aging and health span, I am in the camp that thinks telomere length is an indicator of health span and life span.
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KFISH
#22
N=1, I’ve been taking rapamycin for a little over two years along with the supplements that you have listed and I’ve seen no telomere growth.
Longer telomere growth is not always associated with health and longevity, in fact, some studies suggest that shorter telomeres produce less cancer, possibly due to a decrease in IGF1. Not sure there is a correlation between longevity and longer telomeres. It certainly seems to be a gray area.
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DrT
#23
My 2c worth?
Be careful of confusing correlation with causation.
Given a choice, I think I’d rather my telomeres didn’t erode. Or perhaps even that they grew back.
I’d also like to turn my white hair back to brown. I think we can all agree that hair colour is a consequence of aging, not a cause.
It may be that telomere lengths are an indicator of cellular fitness. Perhaps any anti aging attributes of hTERT are due to other effects.
Still a lot more research needed I think.
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KFISH
#24
One of the single most prevalent mutations associated with a huge variety of cancers is one that disables the cell’s ability to turn telomerase off. It turns out that short telomeres (but not too short!) are a natural defense against cancer, because they prevent cells from dividing.
It’s just barely possible that there’s a tiny subset of cells where lengthened telomeres are beneficial, but there isn’t any evidence in support of this.
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Some good news related to telomeres…
Telomerase gene therapy shows promising potential for treating pulmonary fibrosis and other diseases associated with short telomeres
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Can you elaborate on the effects of TA-65 on your telomere length?
Over the period of time I used it, test results varied from above chronological age, to below, then above again, then about even which led me to question the efficacy of the product.
I see. That makes perfect sense, thank you. Dave Pascoe takes TA-65 (along with Rapamycin and TAM-818) but he did not describe any before and after effects in detail with regards to it specifically. Maybe his telomere extension results are actually a result of his NMN/NR consumption and Rapa rather than TA-65.
jnorm
#29
It’s just barely possible that there’s a tiny subset of cells where lengthened telomeres are beneficial, but there isn’t any evidence in support of this.
The evidence would be that transgenic TERT extends mice lifespan, where using repeated delivery w/ CMV vector in female mice gives (median lifespan, max lifespan)=(1140days,1250days). You can just snort the vector too. 
This is well beyond the 900+/-50 day upper limit for median mice lifespan in absence of longevity treatments, although ideally it would be repeated w/ genetically heterogenous mice. Also even single dose of TERT w/ AAV vector also extends mice lifespan.
