Rechârge Biomedical Clinic

There are 11 syndromes that result in premature aging, or PROGERIAS (pro- towards / geria – elderly).  Scientists have determined the genetic and molecular causes for them, so what can those details tell us about aging in general?

——————– THE PROGERIAS

(adapted from a chart from: “Shared Phenotypes Among Segmental Progeroid Syndromes Suggest Underlying Pathways of Aging,”
Hofer, AC et al , J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci (2005) 60 (1): 10-20)

You may notice that only four of the Progerias show accelerated telomere shortening, but since 10 of 11 involve DNA maintenance problems, I believe a Telomere theory of aging still applies insofar as telomeres are made of DNA and therefore a subset of DNA maintenance.  My own version of the telomere theory of aging can be found at the bottom of this page from my website: http://www.rechargebiomedical.com/aging.html

Here is a closer examination of Progerias by molecular etiology:

1) Helicases (in Blue above) are enzymes (like nanomachines) needed to unwind the double helix for all manner of DNA processing

2) DNA Transcription (in Orange) is the matching of complimentary strands for existing sequences (reading GGGTTA causes a ‘writing’ or transcription of CCCAAT on the opposing strand). Removal and repair of ‘typographic’ errors.

3) DNA Repair (in Red) fixes breaks in DNA, caps the telomeres, and permits checkpoints to hypnotize or kill off genetically-damaged cells.

4) Nuclear membrane integrity (in Yellow) is poor, making chromosome sorting and synthesis difficult

5) Telomerase dysfunction (in Green) allow for rapid shortening and uncapping of chromosome ends

——————-
Q: So what do all these cell processes have in common?

A: They all cause poor maintenance of our genetic integrity.

To quote from my older blog post:
“There are 50 billion cell divisions x 6 billion base pairs copied per cell division every day. This means there are 300 quintillion (300,000,000,000,000,000,000) chances to make a mistake every day.”
http://www.rechargebiomedical.com/blog/uncategorized/288/

But the biggest problems are probably not from simple transcription “typos” but rather when telomeres become critically short, or uncapped.  Uncapped DNA triggers repair mechanisms because the repair systems see them as DNA breaks which must then be joined together.

When the cell divides the next time, the fused chromosome is torn apart like trapeze artists that can’t let go, because the points of failure after end-to-end chromosome fusion are no longer the natural “fingertips”.

——————
Now that you understand that premature aging, we can apply the same principles to  regular aging, which simply reflects loss of data integrity made possible by telomere attrition (both from replicative senescence and oxidation) and by poor DNA repair and transcription in general.

By taking TA-65, you will recharge your telomeres and that is always a good thing. Call now before any more of your stem cell chromosomes become uncapped.

As a new feature to these blog posts, I’m offering this video ‘walk through’ of the main ideas. Click the image below to view it.

Premature Aging Syndromes

If you found this post and/or video interesting, please forward it to a friend. Thanks!

Here is the link to the complete DNA transcription video

Q: Does aging prevent cancer?
A: No, yes, no, no, and huh?

I’ve tossed together a quick posting about the question “Does Aging prevent cancer?”

We’ll take this question on Five levels:

1) The Molecular Level – No!
Replicative senescence causes telomeric DNA to shorten each cell division.
Unprotected telomeres allow for DNA damage which is the sina qua non of cancer.
So at the level of the DNA, it’s quite the opposite: aging of the DNA causes cancer.

2) Nuclear Level -Yes
Yes.  A wonderful experiment created a custom p53 enzyme (the policeman of the genome) that could no longer kill (apoptosis) but COULD shut down (senescence) critically damaged telomeres.  They proved that in real-life mice, p53 prevention of skin cancer required the forced-aging of old dysfunctional cells possessed of critically-short telomeres.  Surprisingly, the p53 prevention of skin cancer in these mice was not mediated by killing those cells.

3) Organism level – No
Obviously, older people get more cancer, premature aging syndrome kids (progerics) get more cancer, and aging immune systems (i.e. AIDS) area associated with more cancer.

4) Evolution of the Species level – No.
From aging conferences and reading editorials, I’ve heard some intelligent scientists suggest that aging is Nature’s way of preventing cancer. Dubious at best.

Hominid evolution never included aging because the fossil record doesn’t even show any of our ancestors made it much past 30.  Since cancer never occurred (because aging was uncommon,) it couldn’t have be a factor in natural selection.  Those scientists need to brush up on their Darwin and Dawkins, and put down the Genesis and Grimm brothers.

5) Cosmic – huh?

Isn't it Ironic?

Grimm Brothers are a good model for much of what passes for theories on Aging.  Deeply ingrained in our core values is the ironic comeuppance, which serves as a karmic gyroscope in what is essentially a magical and personal view of living.  “Be careful what you wish for” they say, the Monkey’s Paw, Vampirism, the Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith has all the time in the world to read books but breaks his glasses.

But let’s face it, in the real world, the bad guys often come out on top and usually, Grace gives us more than we truly deserve.

In my opinion, the universe doesn’t concern itself with ‘aging’ or ‘cancer’.  These terms are abstractions that emerge from human biology and consciousness. Scientists who suggest that aging prevents cancer should concern themselves more with the mechanics of the watch, than whether the watchmaker was blind, deaf, or in a foul mood when he wove the tapestry of our lives.

As Alexander Pope pointed out: “The proper study of mankind is Man” and the experts there are the storytellers, musicians, and artists.

The experts on God and the Metaphysical “meaning of it all” are clergy and philosophers.

In my opinion, scientists should stick to science and avoid hand-waving and trying to interpret the cosmic ‘meaning of it all’

Most people, physicians included, believe that high blood pressure is a disease but I am not alone in believing that it is really just an inevitable consequence of aging.

If you only remember one thing from this posting, understand that high blood pressure occurs because, like our aging skin, the arteries become less supple as we age.

The arteries are like garden hoses that can also pump.  That’s why you can feel your pulse in your wrist and neck.  Interestingly, healthy young arteries can pump harder as they get farther away from the heart, thereby helping out with some of the forward pumping workload of the heart. That is depicted on the left by the ‘fanning out’ of the pressure measurements from “Aorta” to “Large Artery” in this purple diagram. By the time you reach the capillaries, flow is pretty constant.

But with aging,  gunk accumulates as atherosclerosis, arterial walls thicken, and the contractions of your tired arteries weaken, so the body has to somehow compensate for a LOW blood pressure being delivered to vital organs by both increasing the output of the heart (like opening the faucet) and narrowing the flow (like kinking the hose or restricting flow with your thumb).

The medicines we successfully employ to control blood pressure most often dampen the body’s narrowing mechanisms such as the adrenaline system, the salt excretion system, and the active control of the arterial diameters (the renin-angiotensin system), mechanisms which are all commonly misconstrued to be causes of hypertension, rather than its mediators.

The new paradigm considers hypertension to be body’s cure for a critical but faltering task:

the need to deliver blood away from the heart

Same arm BP's, different central work needed

This diagram shows three men of different ages who have normal blood pressure measured by blood pressure cuffs found in your doctor’s office (that were incidentally invented over 115 years ago.)

So their circulatory systems are all the same, right?    No.  Dead wrong!   Because “110/80″ in the arm, whilst resting and seated, doesn’t tell us much about the accumulated aging of the arteries that the heart and central arterial system must contend with.

In order to maintain similar blood flow delivery depicted on the bottom chart, notice that the 28, 52, and 68 year-old heart/arteries produce very different Pulse Waves more centrally, as depicted on the top chart.  The remainder of this post explores modern Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA) that is not, but probably should be, used in your doctor’s office to understand your actual circulatory function.

——————– 21st century technology:  The Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA)

Even if you’re not a fluid engineer for NASA, you can intuitively grasp PWA by imagining you have a turkey baster that is tightly connected to a water balloon. If the water balloon is long and soft like the ones they make balloon animals with, you don’t get much bounce back on the bulb when you squeeze.

But imagine you have it connected to one of those little round ones that you can hurl at your friends; you would feel a regurgitation into your turkey baster bulb after squeezing, right?

The first, green wave of the PWA corresponds to the heart’s pumping outward (the baster’s bulb), and the second, red wave is the backwards pressure wave reflected back from arterial resistance (the water balloon’s reaction to your squeezing). The blue, third wave the sum of the first two and represents the all-important, central measurement that was shown in the three men above.

If the circulation is soft and the arteries are helping to pumping blood away, there is not a lot of reflection.

But when the arteries are hard and no longer help pump the blood away from the heart, this reflection, which was once hidden in the turkey baster wave, shows up as a distinctly separate bump now. That is called the Augmentation Pressure and is bad because it is reflective of, literally and figuratively, the hardening of the arteries and the increased blood pressure.  Higher pressure creates more turbulent flow and vessel damage, and causes the viscious cycle of atherosclerosis and the other so-called ’causes’ of hypertension (adrenaline, salt, and the renin-angiotensin system) which I am trying to convince you are just the maladaptive, but required, adjustments needed to keep adequate blood flow in an aging circulatory system.

—————–  Is this still a 65 year old man?   Not so much…

A previous post documented our real-life Benjamin Button’s improvement in his reading glasses and far vision, which we speculated was caused by softening of his lens.  Well, his arteries also softened because his Augmentation Pressure dropped from 21 mmHg to 11 mmHg and his Augmentation Index dropped from 21% to 8% after a year of the Patton Protocol!!

His softer and better-pumping arteries were confirmed by a drop in his blood pressure from 140/90 to 110/60.   And no, our client was never on, nor did he start, any medications during this year and his weight and exercise regiment reamined exactly the same.   But he was taking TA-65 for that entire year.

If you are now curious about your own circulatory age, even on current medications, please call and schedule a free consultation.