Rechârge Biomedical Clinic » longevity

Sleep Apnea shortens telomeres

drpark — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:43:07 +0000

Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.

-Anthony Burgess

Apnea means ‘not breathing’ and the only thing worse than not breathing… is not sleeping. With Sleep Apnea, you’re deprived of both!

Lack of sleep makes you irritable, prone to mistakes, and depresses your immune system. But Sleep Apnea (aka OSAS or Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome) is also linked with heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, arrhythmias, and diabetes.

Sleep Apnea is arguably the most common and serious medical condition that there is (other than telomere erosion, of course.) Over 18 Million (or 6%) of Americans suffer from Sleep Apnea, yet only half of those affected have been diagnosed.

Sleep Apnea will be recognized by roommates and spouses as an eerie and impossibly long pause in the sleeper’s breathing or snoring, followed by a gasping back to life that happens just before you were considering CPR or calling 911. While the witness to Sleep Apnea can be freaked out, the person sleeping is completely unaware of their nightly near-death experiences.

The space behind the nose and mouth collapses

Sleep apnea is caused by a collapse in the soft tissues behind the hard palate. If you recognize these symptoms in yourself, you should call ASAP to arrange a sleep study.

snoring and apnea
waking up choking or gasping
dry throat and eyes in the morning
morning headache
daytime drowsiness
lack of focus
irritability

A Sleep Study

During a sleep study, technicians will connect your scalp to an EEG, measure your pulse and oxygen saturation with a finger monitor, and record what happens throughout the night.

Hypopneas (apneic events) are defined by at least 10 seconds without breathing or snoring, accompanied by either a neurological arousal (a 3-second or greater shift in EEG, or brain wave, frequency) or a blood oxygen desaturation of 3–4% or greater. Clinically significant levels of sleep apnea are defined as six or more of these hypopneas per hour.

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During my reading about telomere biology, I came across a study showing that OSAS is strongly associated with shortened telomeres:

Respir Med. 2010 Aug;104(8):1225-9. Epub 2010 Apr 28.
Telomere shortening in sleep apnea syndrome.

RESULTS: Telomere Length was significantly shorter in patients with OSAS than in controls (p<0.001). This difference persisted after adjustment for age, body mass index, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and uric acid levels, smoking status and the presence of arterial hypertension (p=0.018).

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Sleep should ideally involve 4-5 pleasant and consecutive 90-minute journeys down into the oblivion of slow-EEG wave sleep, and then back up to R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Movement or dreaming) sleep.

Nightly sleep stages

Interestingly, sleep is evolutionarily-conserved so it must be important, right? Did you know that all mammals, birds, and many reptiles, amphibians, and fish require sleep? Yes, even sharks that need to constantly swim to oxygenate their gills, sleep one hemisphere at a time.

With sleep apnea, you are suffocating and being momentarily jarred closer to consciousness at least 6 times an hour. With normal regenerative sleep, you should be enjoying a heightened anabolic (building up and restoring) state, with growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems.

Returning to the study findings, perhaps the failure to maintain the deeper unconscious stages of sleep is preventing the healthy and prolonged lowering of levels of adrenaline (the “fight or flight” hormone) and cortisol (the “stressed-out” hormone) that should normally occur during the ‘wee hours’ of the morning. The dozens of near-awakenings keep the Sleep Apnea sufferer in a vigilant and catabolic (breaking down and using up) state that should be reserved for your on-the-go, waking hours.

Whether or not you subscribe to my stem cell theory of aging, you absolutely must get help if you have the symptoms of sleep apnea. It will transform your life in a way that I can only liken to Dorothy awakening from a dreary black-and-white Kansas into the Wonderful World of OZ.

"You're out of the woods...Hold onto your breath...Hold onto your hope"

And yes, I am speaking from my personal experience of using a CPAP machine every night for the last 17 years (not coincidentally, the year I got married.) In the interests of health, well-being, and telomere stability, you or your loved ones must get tested and treated for Sleep Apnea. It will transform your life so that you will never, ever want to leave the “Merry Old Land of ZZZZZZzzzz”

Running up the down escalator

drpark — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:18:36 +0000

Patients often wonder if after stopping TA-65, their cells will age even faster. The answer is no; although unpleasant physical withdrawal symptoms are a common complaint after stopping anabolic hormones such as HGH (Human Growth Hormone) injections and sex hormones (testosterone and estrogens.)

Unlike hormones, Telomerase activation doesn’t supercharge gene expression, it merely recharges the protective length of telomeres, like rechargeable batteries. That charge will then be shared with neighboring telomeres by rebalancing and prevent chromosomal damage that can lead to many, if not most, human diseases.

The musical, Bye, Bye Birdie asked: “What’s the matter with kids today?”

Well, if they inherited their parents’ telomere erosion, there would be a lot wrong with them! They’d be born older and with the DNA damage that mom and dad had acquired before reproducing.

But when a new life is created in a single cell fertilized egg, the telomere length is magically reset, like a pinball machine, to 15,000 base pairs, and the integrity of the DNA library inheritance is nearly error-free from highly error-protected egg and sperm cells.

A lot of cell division means a lot of telomere loss

In fact, because of the frenzied in utero growth and differentiation, you had already burned through 5,000 base pairs, so that on your birthday, only 10,000 remained.

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Since birth, you have lost and average of 1,000 base pairs per decade but lost them faster during stress, whether infectious, toxic, emotional, or from overuse. So, if you’re 60 years old, they could be as short as 4,000 base pairs in some types of stem cells.

Telomerase moves you back up the escalator

Think of your body’s stem cell telomere maintenance efforts like a an effort to walk or run back up a downward-traveling escalator. Unlike run-of-the-mill cells, which die off from natural telomere shortening, stem cells use telomerase activation to print more and more telomere length.

Unhealthy living slows your upward movement, and may even make you descend faster towards the basement. In contrast, healthy living, via telomerase activation, allows you to run back up the escalator. Since stopping TA-65 doesn’t speed up the escalator, you will simply resume your descent from a higher level.

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Telomere erosion can be slowed or even reversed by telomerase activation, whether by exercise, good nutrition, psychosocial and emotional balance, or sleep. Now, TA-65 is available to you as the world’s first safe and effective telomerase activator. Think of it as an hour of cardiovascular exercise, four servings of fruits and vegetables, an hour of prayer or mediation, and eight hours of sleep, all in a tiny capsule! Taking TA-65 is a way to reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle for people who don’t have the time, inclination, or discipline to do so but do have the equivalent of a Grande Latte and muffin ($6.60) to spend on themselves daily.

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Postscript: For more inspiration from a real-life ‘windmill tilter,’ check out this story about an 80 year-old gentleman named Peter Hildreth who was banned from running up escalators.

People never change...only their stem cells do

We are not machines

drpark — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 06:42:15 +0000

We often think of our bodies as though they were machines.

But machines break down with usage, primarily due to friction.

In contradistinction, your body improves with overuse. That is to say, more exercise makes your body stronger. Do you know why?

Exercise activates telomerase

It is because exercise activates telomerase, just like taking TA-65!

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Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD- Nobel Prize winner 2009

Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, studied men with prostate cancer and showed that their telomerase activity could be increased by just three months of these healthy behaviors:

1) a diet of low fat, whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains, and legumes, which was also low in refined carbohydrates

2) moderate aerobic exercise (walking 30 minutes/day, 6 days/week)

3) stress management (gentle yoga-based stretching, breathing, meditation, imagery, and progressive relaxation techniques 60 minutes/day, 6 days/week), and a 1-hour group support session, once per week

4) Taking supplements of soy, fish oil, vitamin E, selenium, and vitamin C

Dr. Blackburn’s research suggests that healthy lifestyle choices may be acting via one final common pathway: telomerase activation. And now, there is a safe way to activate telomerase that over 1,000 people have taken since 2005.

——————— Nature’s experiments ——————–

Not convinced? Consider Nature’s experiment of people completely devoid of telomerase activation, a disease called Dyskeratosis Congenita. Those kids die by age 12 of age-related illnesses such as heart attacks and cancer (N.B. their cancers suggest that chromosomal damage from telomere instability causes cancer, not telomerase activation as the naysayers of TA-65 say, unencumbered by data or a sound theoretical basis.)

Dyskeratosis Congenita suggests that your life expectancy without any telomerase activation is a meager 12 years. The fact is, the more telomerase activity you can muster, the better.

Two other validations of improved longevity being associated with increased telomerase activity come from Ashkenazi Jews who lived to 100 and trees that lived to 5,000 years .

I believe that the other major theories of aging, such as intracellular junk and oxidative damage, are off the mark. But you might cry foul and tell me: “Dr. Park, ‘when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ Aging isn’t all attributable to the telomeres and the only reason you think so is because you’re selling TA-65.”

But I would reply that with 92 nails per cell (i.e. telomere caps) and the need to copy and protect them 4.8 trillion times a day, you had better have a lot of hammers at work. The experiments of a Nobel Prize winner AND Mother Nature, as well as the benefits that we, the TA-65 pioneers, have enjoyed, all suggest that telomerase activation is strongly associated with healthier lifestyles and healthier living.

When all you have is nails, you better have a lot of hammers

Taking TA-65 is a safe and natural way to increase your telomerase activity and we believe that is a good thing. Call me if you would like to join our revolution against aging because “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” and the only way you’ll ever be truly convinced is to what I did: try it yourself.

Prometheus and Methusela, the world’s oldest trees

drpark — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:56:33 +0000

The two oldest trees known were Bristlecone Pine trees in Nevada (Prometheus-5000 years old) and Prometheus in California (4800 years old)

a Bristlecone pine

Like all living things more evolved that bacteria, trees need to lengthen their telomeres with telomerase otherwise they’ll die from critically shortened chromosome tips, the telomeres. The difference between us and trees is that their telomeres are seven base pairs repeating (TTTAGGG) rather than the six that we use (TTAGGG.)

Bacteria all have circular DNA, which can be easily reproduced without shortening. In contrast, each cell from a EUKARYOTE (yeast, plants, and animals) houses the entire vast library of thousands of genes in its nucleus. The variable expression of those genes determines the form and function cells in their organs.

Evidence shows that trees with more telomerase activity live longer. With high telomerase activation, 2000- to 5000-year lifespans are possible. With moderate activity comes medium lifespans (400- to 500 years) and with little activation, the pine trees are short-lived (100- to 200-years.) †

You are fortunate to live in a time after the discovery of TA-65, a nutraceutical substance that can activate telomerase and thereby delay aging. Start your Patton Protocol now and you can experience rejuvenation so that someday, you can be “as old as the trees.”

† Flanary and Kletetschka published these results in Rejuvenation Research (2006 Spring; 9(1): 61-63

To learn more, go to:
Rechargebiomedical.com

Telomeres are longer in healthier, older people

drpark — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:20:54 +0000

Hello subscribers, I’m passing along this press release from TA Sciences. It is more evidence that telomeres are a critical factor in staying young and healthy.

This study shows that people “who have lived to a very old age have inherited mutant genes that make their telomerase-making system extra active.” For those of us who have not inherited such genes, TA-65 is the only known product that can activate telomerase.

“Longevity Tied to Genes That Preserve Tips of Chromosomes“

November 11, 2009; Bronx, NY A team led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has found a clear link between living to 100 and inheriting a hyperactive version of an enzyme that rebuilds telomeres - the tip ends of chromosomes. The findings appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Yousin Suh, Ph.D.

Telomeres play crucial roles in aging, cancer and other biological processes. Their importance was recognized last month, when three scientists were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for determining the structure of telomeres and discovering how they protect chromosomes from degrading.

Telomeres are relatively short sections of specialized DNA that sit at the ends of all chromosomes. One of the Nobel Prize winners, Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, has compared telomeres to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces that prevent the laces from unraveling. Each time a cell divides, its telomeres erode slightly and become progressively shorter with each cell division. Eventually, telomeres become so short that their host cells stop dividing and lapse into a condition called cell senescence. As a result, vital tissues and important organs begin to fail and the classical signs of aging ensue.

In investigating the role of telomeres in aging, the Einstein researchers studied Ashkenazi Jews because they are a homogeneous population that was already well studied genetically. Three groups were enrolled: 86 very old but generally healthy people (average age 97); 175 of their offspring; and 93 controls (offspring of parents who had lived a normal lifespan). Gil Atzmon, Ph.D. “Telomeres are one piece of the puzzle that accounts for why some people can live so long,” says Gil Atzmon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Genetics at Einstein, Genetic Core Leader for The LonGevity Project at Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research, and a lead author of the paper. “Our research was meant to answer two questions: Do people who live long lives tend to have long telomeres? And if so, could variations in their genes that code for telomerase account for their long telomeres?”

The answer to both questions was “yes.”

“As we suspected, humans of exceptional longevity are better able to maintain the length of their telomeres,” said Yousin Suh, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine and of genetics at Einstein and senior author of the paper. “And we found that they owe their longevity, at least in part, to advantageous variants of genes involved in telomere maintenance.”

More specifically, the researchers found that participants who have lived to a very old age have inherited mutant genes that make their telomerase-making system extra active and able to maintain telomere length more effectively. For the most part, these people were spared age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which cause most deaths among elderly people.

“Telomeres are one piece of the puzzle that accounts for why some people can live so long.” Gil Atzmon, Ph.D.

“Our findings suggest that telomere length and variants of telomerase genes combine to help people live very long lives, perhaps by protecting them from the diseases of old age,” says Dr. Suh. “We’re now trying to understand the mechanism by which these genetic variants of telomerase maintain telomere length in centenarians. Ultimately, it may be possible to develop drugs that mimic the telomerase that our centenarians have been blessed with.”

The study, “Genetic Variation in Human Telomerase is Associated with Telomere Length in Ashkenazi Centenarians,” appears in the November 9th on-line issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to Drs. Atzmon and Suh, the study’s other Einstein researchers were co-lead author Miook Cho, M.S., Temuri Budagov, M.S., Micol Katz, M.D., Xiaoman Yang, M.D., Glenn Siegel, M.D., Aviv Bergman, Ph.D., Derek M. Huffman, Ph.D., Clyde B. Schechter, M.D., and Nir Barzilai, M.D.