'who wants to live forever' sang Queen in 1986. We are bombarded with a variety of choices how to live longer & look younger whether by diet,fitness regime, anti-aging creams & potions, plastic surgery, botox-the list goes on.
There are some people who don't want to live forever because of the darker side of today's world with it's crime,violence, disease & ever nastier weapon development. Others simply feel that because of poor health & no quality of life, well, what's the point?
What if we didn't grow old & had good health? According to the scientists it's all to do with your shoe laces-sort of! our body cells are constantly renewing themselves before they die. The telomere, which translated from the Greek means 'end part', is the end part of the chromosome, & it protects the chromosome from deterioration. It has been likened to the aglet or plastic tip on the end of a shoelace that stops it from fraying.
The problem is that each time a telomere renews it shortens, until eventually it's consumed & the cell dies. Ironically most cancers come about when cells have somehow slipped the net of what has been described as 'programmed destruction'. Scientists, clever bunch that they are,have looked at the length of our telomeres at birth,how quickly they shorten, & how it makes some of us age quicker especially for those that smoke,don't exercise regularly & have weight issues.
The hope is that through testing, particularly at a young age, that scientists can manipulate things so that we can live longer & hopefully healthier lives. So good health & quality of life is something that we all want. To truly enjoy it though we just need to sort out the problems of the world & bring about world peace & harmony-that just may be a bit trickier & get in the way of living forever!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment