Over time, the dutiful and dysfunctional stem cells die off but others, like the Mafia capos or career politicians, become unable to kill themselves so they persist and cause problems while still lengthening their telomres.
Sex associated with longer telomeres in women
In a 2017 study of 129 mothers, researchers at UCSF found that having sexual intercourse was associated with longer telomeres, which are associated with better health and increased longevity.
Telomerase activators do not trump the natural pruning of length
I have noted that over the last nine years, taking telomerase activators in my patients can lead to increases but that this does not result in continuous lengthening. Now, we understand why this is the case.
Predicting cancer based on average telomere length is problematic
When we discuss the risk of telomere length to cancer risk, there are many studies but the conclusions we reach are limited by our simplistic assumptions.
Telomere measurement pitfalls – don’t despair!
“flow-FISH was more accurate, reproducible, sensitive, and specific in the measurement of human leukocyte’s telomere length in comparison to qPCR”