Long running increases life expectancy and telomere length. Combating telomere shortening

You can get special anti-aging creams, dye your hair, or even buy some medications, but this does not change the situation as a whole. Can we slow down the cellular clock?

Aging is not something that is visible on the outside. This is a process that occurs at the microscopic level. Fortunately, cells can slow down this process.

Cell division occurs constantly in our body

This is necessary to replace old, damaged cells with new ones. One of the manifestations of aging is the slowing down and cessation of cell division, as a result of which the body begins to wither.

It is believed that aging is associated with the terminal regions of DNA - . They are like “protective caps” on the ends of chromosomes. The same as the plastic tips that hold the ends of the laces so that they do not fall apart into threads.

With each cell division, telomeres shorten. Therefore, the longer the telomeres, the more cell divisions await ahead, and the further old age recedes.

Here are a few factors that influence telomere length and our age.

Proper nutrition

Photo: pexels.com/Kaboompics // Karolina/CC0 License

As we age, our immune system also weakens. The blood's protective cells, T lymphocytes, lose their properties, making us more vulnerable to diseases from colds to cancer.

The decline in T cell function is linked to the p38 MAPK molecule, according to researchers from University College London.

Blocking p38 MAPK stimulates the activity of T cells and enhances their potential to divide. The good news is that p38 MAPK was activated at low intake nutrients. That is, to avoid aging of lymphocytes and impaired immunity, you need to eat right.

Physical activity increases mitochondrial potential

Physical activity is not only good way to avoid the diseases of civilization, but also a remedy for aging, albeit with a small caveat. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found that fast food can speed up cellular aging in mice and slow down physical activity.

Physical activity increases the potential of mitochondria, the energy stations in cells. Exercise increases both the number of mitochondria and their activity.

However, you should not abuse excessive loads. Super intense physical exercise can speed up metabolism and cell division.

According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, activating your metabolism is important for weight loss. But at the same time, it leads to premature aging.

Weight loss can add life to cells

According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, obesity has adverse health effects, causing premature aging and shortening life expectancy.

Even surgical treatment of obesity resulted in increased telomere length. If telomeres get longer, you delay old age.

Meditation

Do you want to return to the carefree days of childhood? Researchers from the American College of Physicians found that regular meditation practice led to a 17% reduction in cellular stress levels.

Managing stress is an important step to combat aging, as stress shortens telomere length and causes systemic inflammation in the body.

Medicinal herbs

Some sources claim that Chinese ginger, ginkgo biloba and astragalus root extract have a beneficial effect on telomere health. Extracts of these plants were able to reduce the amount immune cells with short telomeres.

However, in some cases, the researchers had a financial interest in the results of the experiments, Rodale News reports.

Get up and go

In fact, most of the things we do while sitting don't deserve that much time.

Aging has always been considered a physiological process that does not require intervention. However, a person tries to push back this milestone in his life by any means. Modern scientists insist that aging is an epigenetic disease and can be treated. You can start at any age.

How much younger can you be?

The right approach will stop aging and ensure longevity for as long as possible. This means that every person can live up to 100 years or more without disease, with a clear mind. External youth depends on more complex factors, but both areas of study are subject to epigenetics. However, even something that depends on the person himself will help him look 10-20 years younger than his real age. Moreover, the older the person, the greater this difference will be.

It should be noted that the body cannot do without genetic predisposition. However, genes help only 30%, the rest depends on the person himself. That is why, if heredity is bad, you should not give up. It can be improved in accessible ways, and you can achieve a long and healthy life through your own efforts.

Everything happens in cells

In a sense, a person himself is an epigeneticist in relation to his body. After all, the ability of cells to live long and divide correctly depends largely on the quality of life. We can say that any cell in the body is a hypochondriac by nature; it is just waiting for the moment when it can commit “suicide”. She lives thanks to a system of well-established biochemical signals. They are the ones that must be provided by a person with the help of a correct lifestyle. Under certain conditions, the cell receives a signal to self-destruct and executes it with lightning speed. But he may be wrong.

Who will fix broken cells?

Self-destruction (apoptosis) is a programmed process, but sometimes it fails in relation to healthy cells that still need to function. Everything happens at the DNA level in the cell nucleus. And while the cell lives, breakdowns and repairs also occur in its DNA. Own proteins restore damaged sections of the helix, which appear quite often. These proteins can be called: DNA restorers, “surgeons,” “repairers.” But they don't always do the job right.

Sometimes “reducers,” on the contrary, destroy the helix, and this group of proteins “works” in every cell of the body. On the one hand, their role cannot be overestimated: they cut, excise, heal, and glue the DNA strand. However, the harm of “reducers” is as great as the benefits. They take the natural ends of the chromosomes for a broken section of DNA and glue them together with other bonds. This disrupts the genetic chain, which leads to the development of serious diseases.

Telomeres as a factor in longevity

However, the chromosomes are protected from such attacks by “surgeons”: at their ends there are telomeres that prevent accidental gluing. The role of telomeres is to enclose the DNA strand and protect it from unauthorized actions of “reducers”.

Telomeres are special proteins that shorten during a person's life. This happens during each cell division: it is as if a small piece is pinched off from the telomeres, and each of them becomes shorter. Why is this important for our longevity? When telomeres shorten to such an extent that they simply end (disappear), the cell dies because it loses the ability to divide. On the scale of the whole organism, this leads to destructive processes: disease, old age, death.

Why telomeres shorten or the aging formula

Scientists explain this fact by evolutionary changes in DNA. In immortal organisms, this molecule is closed in a ring. For example, in bacteria. In almost all living beings, during evolution, it broke apart and became linear. At the same time, the gene that makes a copy of the protein for synthesis continued to work as before. In this regard, the ends of the chromosomes remained uncopied, and each new molecule was shorter than the original. This is the formula for aging. It was formed in an evolutionary way.

Who will protect telomeres?

However, organisms are advanced systems that provide yet another defense. Each telomere contains the enzyme telomerase.

Its role is to lengthen the DNA and telomere after each cell division. However, this does not happen in all cells.

Only the following cells are susceptible to telomere elongation:

- stem,

- cancerous,

- eggs,

- precursors of spermatozoa.

They remain young throughout the life of the organism. Thus, telomerase is the source of eternal youth. While this enzyme is present in the cell, its telomeres are restored (“increased”). This fact is proven by the experience of scientists: if you turn off the gene that programs the synthesis of telomerase, telomeres die due to rapid shortening over 25 cell divisions.

Immortality was created, but...

Thus, youth and longevity depend on the activity of the gene encoding telomerase. Interestingly, scientists have learned to artificially add telomerase to a cell and prolong its life indefinitely. She becomes absolutely immortal. Why can’t this experience be applied to humans? The reason is a serious side effect.

The main condition of aging is stress

So, a person ages when his cells lack or completely lack the enzyme telomerase. If a person cannot yet add it on his own, then external factors are known that reduce the amount of enzyme. First of all, it is stress.

An increase in the stress hormone in the blood leads to these consequences, and a person begins to age quickly. This proves the fact that telomere length can be influenced. You need to completely eliminate or limit stress factors in your life.

To counteract stress you need:

- healthy eating,

- motor and mental activity,

- the presence of healthy relaxation factors (full sleep, relaxation, meditation),

- positive emotional balance.

How to lengthen telomeres yourself?

Today, scientists have proven that telomere length is greater in those people who regularly engage in low-impact sports. In the absence of prolonged stress, such sport can be called the main condition for longevity without the help of genetic interventions.

Specifically this:

- jogging,

- cycling,

- walking.

How does influence happen? Sport has a positive effect on the human epigenome. And, therefore, on metabolism and the immune system.

Namely, really:

- the activity and amount of telomerase increases,

- cells live longer (instead of “suicide”).

Nutrition is the main factor in long life

In addition to sports, healthy eating has an invaluable influence.

The diet includes:

- consumption of raw vegetables,

- low fat consumption (but not abstinence from them),

- refusal of artificial refined sugar.

Obstacles to a long life

Based on the above, we can assume that to achieve, if not eternal youth, then at least a long life, it is enough to follow the above recommendations. This, of course, will allow you to look younger than your age, be more cheerful and suffer less from acquired diseases.

However, the following factors should be kept in mind:

1. Telomerase lengthens telomeres only in the following cells: sperm precursors, eggs, stem cells and cancer cells. That is why, in a certain sense, these cells are immortal.

2. The human body consists mainly of somatic cells. In them, telomerase does not perform its rejuvenating function.

Achievements of scientists

Only genetic engineering can force the enzyme to do this by introducing genes that encode telomerase for the necessary “work.”

Today scientists have achieved good results. They can insert the telomerase gene into cells:

- skin,

- eye,

- vessels.

Based on the above, it can be noted that the “elixir of youth” has been found. However, this is hampered by the fact that the enzyme “works” in cancer cells. Thus, in pursuit of youth, a person can acquire cancer. After all, it was telomerase that gave cancer cells the ability to divide forever. This means that, having achieved eternal youth, a person will die of cancer.

The second argument in favor of this opinion: long life is possible not only by activating telomerase, but also by turning off the gene that gives the cell the command to commit suicide. This gene is the p66Shc protein. However, there is a similar problem here - cells in which cancer can form will stop self-destructing.

The circle has closed: turning off the apoptosis gene prolongs life, but leads to the formation of an oncological process. It should be remembered that the disease is formed not only as a result of external factors, but also internal breakdowns, of which there are a great many in the huge and complex human body.

It should be noted that the percentage of deaths from cancer will increase, but not all organisms will suffer this fate. Thus, the pursuit of youth and longevity using genetic engineering methods turns into a game of roulette.

So, humanity faces 2 tasks that cannot be solved separately:

1. Life extension.

2. Elimination of negative consequences.

And, this means, until people learn to defeat cancer, there is no need to talk about a significant extension of youth and life at the genetic level.

Other levers of influence on life

Let's talk about other genes that determine human life expectancy. And also about how you can influence them yourself.

Methuselah genes: carriers can do anything

In addition to the telomerase enzyme, which can be controlled using a coding gene, Methuselah genes influence the prolongation of youth. The name of these squirrels is given by analogy with the biblical character: Methuselah, oldest person, who lived 969 years. The name Methuselah became a household name. It is used when talking about long-livers.

Known genes of Methuselah:

- ADIPOQ,

- CETP,

- ApoC3

occur in approximately 10% of people. The lucky ones can worry less about regulating the level of insulin in the blood, the concentration of cholesterol and other substances in the body. However, it is still necessary to maintain health, otherwise the natural factor - a gift from the ancestors - will not help, since the gene will not be able to independently ensure longevity.

To longevity through insulin

Today, scientists need to identify proteins that are formed under the influence of Methuselah's genes. Based on them, you can create the long-awaited “elixir”. However, it is not known exactly how it will act. And we should remember the main obstacle to genetic engineering: humanity is not yet able to defeat cancer.

It is noted that Methuselah genes affect the insulin receptor. As a result, the receptor signals a low sugar level, regardless of its actual levels. This fact supports health high level throughout a person’s life and is a powerful incentive for longevity (proved by the example of long-lived people who have exceeded 100 years of age).

The Methuselah gene that regulates the body's response to insulin is called FOXO3A. It should be noted that this is why diabetic medications that lower blood glucose levels prolong life. These include, for example, metformin.

How can you use this knowledge to influence life expectancy?

Through genetic engineering capabilities that influence activity:

- NAD+,

- telomerase,

- Methuselah genes,

- insulin receptors.

We increase NAD+ and sirtuins on our own

They can be influenced through a transcription factor, which is a marker of gene control regions in protein synthesis. It should be noted that the coenzyme NAD+ (NAD+) plays a huge role in prolonging youth. This is the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. The substance affects the activity of the rejuvenating proteins sirtuins. They regulate the enzyme telomerase: the more NAD+, the more active the sirtuins, the longer the body lives. And it is through them that a person can lengthen telomeres without geneticists, because the hormone insulin and IGF-1 are antagonists of sirtuins, and it can be controlled independently.

Increases the level of NAD+ and, therefore, sirtuins:

- low-calorie diet,

- medicine: nicotinamide riboside.

Important: nutrition should include all necessary microelements, vitamins with a small amount of calories (half the norm). The norm is 2000-3500 Kcal/day. All these enzymes, genes, transcription factors are influenced by: the hormone insulin and IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor).

Some foods have the same beneficial effect. Namely:

- blueberry,

- peanuts,

- red grapes,

- dry red wine.

This is possible thanks to the natural substance resveratrol.

The benefits of resveratrol cannot be overestimated; it has the following effects on the body:

- antitumor,

- anti-inflammatory,

- lowers blood sugar,

- protects the blood vessels of the heart,

- compensating effect of a fatty diet.

Resveratrol is not a panacea

The essence of the substance’s action is to neutralize oxygen free radicals, because they contribute to the development of cancer. It should be noted that during radiotherapy for lung cancer, resveratrol has the opposite effect. The substance increases the number of cancer cells. And one more thing: scientists’ conclusions regarding resveratrol have been confirmed in mice, but not in humans.

Other medications that prolong life should be noted:

- carvedilol,

- metformin,

- telmisartan,

- vitamins D and B6,

- glucosamine sulfate,

- nicotinamide riboside.

It is noteworthy: the older the cell, the less sirtuins it contains, and the more acetyl groups it contains. This is what leads to changes in DNA structure and, as a result, to serious illnesses. Hence the conclusion: cell aging is influenced by epigenetic factors. This means that a person can independently influence the aging factor.

Nutritional features to remember

So, the rejuvenating effect in living organisms is clearly expressed under the following conditions:

- low levels of insulin and IGF-1,

- low-calorie moderate diet constantly.

Important: you should distinguish between low-calorie and poor nutrition. In the second case, a lack of vitamins and microelements quickly leads to the development of various pathologies and a shortened life.

Sports, without which nothing will happen

An alternative to targeted undernutrition is exercise. Physical education allows you to burn excess energy, at the same time reducing insulin levels and increasing the activity of youth genes (sirtuins). But still, exercise does not mean that you are allowed to forget about a healthy diet.

Useful sports if practiced regularly:

- jogging for 30-40 minutes,

- cycling for at least 1 hour,

- swimming, active sports games.

Advice: It is better to run in the morning on an empty stomach. Take food 1 hour after exercise.

Food that will give you longevity

Are Omega-3s safe?

It is worth mentioning useful Omega-3 acids, which are sold in large quantities by pharmaceuticals and consumed by people. Their effect on telomeres has been proven: acids of this group slow down the degree of chromosome shortening. However, there is a negative point, which has also been proven by scientists: these polyunsaturated fats quickly oxidize in the body’s cells. As a result, they lead to “breakage” of cells, accelerated aging, and the development of cancer.

Olive oil for longevity

Scientists call monounsaturated fatty acids more harmless and no less useful. Most of them are found in olive oil. Advice: accept olive oil best raw. You should buy a cold first-pressed unfiltered product (Extra Virgin) made in Spain, Greece, and Italy. The oil must not be heated. As a result, the product decomposes, its healing qualities disappear, and a carcinogenic factor appears.

For comparison: sunflower oil contains more vitamin E than olive oil; and flaxseed contains more unsaturated Omega-3 fatty acids. Linseed oil It must also be consumed raw, without heating. That is why the menu should contain different vegetable oils.

The healthiest food proven to prolong life:

- kefir,

- raw carrots,

- raw broccoli,

- fatty fish (steamed),

- hazelnuts, sesame seeds, flax seeds,

- cold pressed olive oil,

- raw onions and garlic,

- dark grape varieties,

- fresh herbs: parsley, dill, - beans, buckwheat, oatmeal (porridge must be steamed), - fruits: blueberries, blackberries, prunes, currants, - also: cherries, pomegranates, strawberries, sour apples.

Prognosis for old age

Constant application of recommendations for life extension will allow you to achieve rejuvenation of the body, get sick less, or eliminate diseases completely. Without genetic engineering, this works 100% if there is a predisposition, and if the mental and physical activity of a person is ensured. However, it is very easy to ruin heredity if your lifestyle does not comply with these recommendations. You can start right now. Interesting Facts: the body completely “forgets” about the harmful factor of smoking 5 years after quitting the habit. The body is able to recover even after the habit of “drinking” alcohol. The body is unusually sensitive; it gratefully responds to any natural care by improving its appearance and increasing its lifespan.

Photos used in the article were taken mainly from the Internet.

Biologists have experimentally confirmed a way to restore youth to all tissues of the body. They managed to launch an enzyme that turns back the clock of cellular time and aging.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, managed to overcome the aging of organs and tissues in mice by adding telomeres in stem cells. Telomeres - repeats of short sequences of nucleotides at the ends of chromosomes - are considered a marker of aging. With each cell division, they are shortened due to the inability of the DNA polymerase enzyme to synthesize a copy of DNA from the very end. What remains is the unduplicated end, which does not enter the daughter cell.

telomerase An enzyme that builds telomeres during cell division. It is a reverse transcriptase that uses an RNA template to synthesize a DNA sequence that lengthens the telomere.

Telomeres can be built up to their previous length with the help of a special enzyme - telomerase, which works in stem and germ cells. Telomerase has attracted a lot of attention from specialists dealing with aging problems. But until now, it has not been possible to use the telomerase mechanism to reverse tissue degradation.

Aging Mutants

Ronald A. DePinho and his team worked on mutant mice. Their telomerase did not work even in those cells in which it should - in stem and germ cells. Fibroblasts isolated from them could divide no more than four to five times, after which they degraded. And the mice themselves, at a very young age, showed signs of aging: the testes and spleen degraded, and the ability to reproduce disappeared. Neurogenesis in the brain has slowed down: the number of neural stem cells and their transformation into neurons and glial cells - oligodendrocytes - have decreased. And due to the lack of the latter, the long processes of neurons - axons - have lost part of their insulating myelin sheaths. As a result, the brains of the mutants became smaller and lighter compared to the brains of normal mice. In addition, the mutants had impaired sense of smell (as usually occurs in old animals), since the olfactory epithelium was degraded.

Atrophy is reversible

apoptosis Programmed cell death. A form of cell death in which the cell decreases in size, chromatin condenses and fragments, the membrane thickens, and the cellular contents are destroyed without release into the environment.

myelin sheath An electrically insulating sheath that covers the axons of many neurons. It is formed by glial cells, in the central nervous system- oligodendrocytes. They wrap around the axon, covering it with multiple layers of membrane. Isolation greatly increases the speed of nerve impulse transmission.

The experiment shows, the authors believe, that stem cells of an adult organism, which are in a dormant state, can be returned to active life and reproduction if telomere restoration is activated. In this experiment, the model was mutant mice with non-functioning telomerase, but the same thing happens with age-related changes in the body. The work demonstrated the fundamental possibility of tissue rejuvenation by activating telomerase. Although one must be very careful along this path, since telomerase is active in cancer cells. In this experiment, scientists did not encounter cancerous tissue degeneration, but this possibility cannot be ruled out.

The famous American scientist Bill Andrews is close to creating a drug that slows down cell aging. The drug works through telomerase, an enzyme that Bill discovered with his research group. The scientist also runs and, at 62, completed the most difficult ultramarathon in the Himalayas - which is 222 kilometers without stopping in thin mountain air. T&P talked to him about health, sports and old age, the onset of which can be delayed without pills.

Your developments are based on the study of telomeres and telomerase. What is it and how does it work?

Telomeres are the ends of our chromosomes. In living nature, chromosomes contain DNA molecules with genetic information that determines the color of hair, eyes and everything else. Each such molecule is like a long chain of records, or “bases.” There are hundreds of millions of them on each chromosome. In fact, the DNA molecule is like a shoelace, and telomeres are like the caps at the ends. Over the past 30 years, we've learned that these little telomeres shrink with age, and we've shown that short telomeres are associated with almost every conceivable disease that a person can get as they age. We are now trying to restore the length of telomeres in a living cell, or at least slow down the process of their shortening. We have published hundreds of publications in scientific journals about how they relate to human health. We don't know exactly what is the cause and what is the effect, but most of the research shows that shrinking telomeres causes disease, and not vice versa.

I led a research group that discovered an enzyme called telomerase, which is responsible for maintaining the length of these chromosome regions. Telomerase is produced only in our gametes: children are born with long telomeres, and then, with age, the process of their shortening begins. We took telomerase, introduced it into other human cells in a Petri dish and saw that the cells became younger and the telomeres in them grew. A second group of scientists at the same company later placed these cells on the backs of laboratory mice and noticed that the skin in these areas became young again. This suggests that the mechanisms of aging can be reversed.

Following these discoveries, a third team at Harvard, led by Dr. Ronald de Pino, used gene therapy techniques to lengthen the short telomeres of old mice. When they did this, they saw that within a few weeks the mice became young again. This saved them from many age-related diseases. We don't know 100% whether telomere repair can treat disease, but based on many scientific publications, I'm 99% sure it can. Still, we want to know for sure before we create pills for people. In addition, the techniques that were used in the case of mice are not suitable for humans: not because of telomerase, but because side effects gene therapy itself.

My company is testing chemical substances and adds them to human cells in petri dishes in search of what will trigger the production of telomerase. Among hundreds of thousands of “contenders,” we found natural substances that Isagenix now uses to produce its products. Besides, in South Korea In New Zealand, Australia and China, there are skin cosmetics whose effect is based on the action of telomerase, although synthetic substances are used for production here. We spent clinical researches this cream and found that it was the most effective remedy anti-wrinkle and skin elasticity restoration product we have ever reviewed. Unfortunately, we have not studied the effect of this cream on wounds, although users say that it heals them.

In general, there is a hypothesis that the entire aging process has not always existed. This is true?

I believe that aging is a recent invention of evolution. There are still creatures on our planet who lack this mechanism - or, in any case, we do not notice it. These are lobsters, turtles, bivalves, some whales, fish and birds. In all these animals, telomerase is constantly produced in the cells, and telomeres do not shorten.

All this was discovered recently because people have never really been interested in how long animals live. Most animals cannot be judged of their age and do not have growth rings or wrinkles. You can only find a newborn animal, place some device on it and observe. In some cases, even after many years, the animal does not show any signs of aging.

Charles Darwin, for example, had a tortoise named Harietta who died suddenly at about 180 years of age - but it was not due to old age. There are turtles that were born more than two hundred years ago and are still alive. Recently, fishermen caught a bowhead whale, on whose skin they found a harpoon made 130 years ago. And bivalves there are stripes on the shell, each of which grows in a year, and now people find mollusks older than five hundred years. All this happens because their telomeres do not become shorter, and telomerase is produced in all cells of the body. Such animals also rarely develop severe diseases, including cancer.

The question arises: why did the aging process appear in nature? I think there's a great theoretical explanation for this. The purpose of evolution is to help us adapt to changes in our environment. Over the past two thousand years, we have been able to succeed in this and have become quite intelligent. What allows us to do this is our ability to shuffle genes: when two people or animals produce offspring, they create a variant that has never existed on the planet before. This is how we continuously improve our ability to adapt to change and improve the chances of survival of the species into the future - through new children and new generations.

However, if old people do not grow old, but remain healthy and wise, young people cannot compete with them - neither for food, nor for brides and everything else. As a result, genes are shuffled less frequently. That is, the species survives better if old creatures are killed. There is no advantage to living a long life after you have raised children: when they become adults, you become their competitor.

Mechanistically, however, aging varies in nature: mice, for example, become frail due to oxidative stress and cardiovascular disease. There are twenty different theories about why we age. I can't believe any of them, but I see that they all view dying as a process of cell combustion. The question is when and how this process starts. I suppose that today evolution is “working out” its different variants. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of years ago aging did not exist, because there was no need to worry about competition with descendants: everyone could find a place for themselves anyway.

Scientists have found that only humans and other primates, as well as dogs, cats, horses, sheep, bears and pigs, age due to telomere shortening. For other living beings, this process is structured differently, or it simply does not exist. Interestingly, most of the animals I listed above were domesticated. This makes me wonder if domestication, when hunting and defending themselves was no longer necessary, may have caused them to create a new mechanism for aging during the genetic evolution of the species. At the same time, we also domesticated rabbits or mice, and yet they do not age due to shortening of telomeres.

People still want to live a long time - with or without offspring. There are scientists who say that human body designed to last 100 or even 120 years. Is it so?

Three independent studies conducted in last years, confirmed that human life expectancy is increasing. And in all cases the maximum age was calculated to be 125 years. Today we no longer live to be 20 years old, like the ancient Romans, and we no longer live to be 45, like the people of the Middle Ages: our average age at the time of death is about 80 years. However, the maximum life expectancy has not increased at all since ancient times.

Telomere shortening explains this perfectly. If we place human cells in a Petri dish, we see that their length decreases by about 5,200 bases in one year. At the moment of birth, the length of telomeres is 10 thousand bases, and 125 years after that - 5 thousand. And this is provided that we drive perfectly healthy image life. However, we don’t do this: we smoke, gain excess weight, neglect exercise, and experience stress.

Once we find a way to slow down the process of telomere shortening, stop it altogether, or even lengthen short telomeres again, this will allow people to live longer than 125 years. Age of the oldest person on the planet in this moment is 116 years, so at best it will be at least another eight years before we can test the theory. And we don’t yet have a cure for old age. There are only things like Isagenix products, although we expect people who use them to live over 125 years.

“I want to prove that I or anyone else can live beyond 125 years. There's no point in living long if you don't live fully."

I perceive old age as a disease from which we all suffer, and I am looking for a cure for it. Many people, especially in the Food and Drug Administration medicines The US government (FDA) doesn't like me calling it that. But when I run one mile (1.6 km) in seven minutes at the age of 100, they will start talking about old age that way too. I want to prove that I or anyone else can live beyond 125 years. There is no point in living long if you do not live fully. I want to be able to show that you can be young and healthy at 130 years old. When I or anyone else has completed this task, I will say: everyone must now agree that old age is a disease and it can be cured.

You said that your biological age is now almost 20 years behind your actual age.

Yes, at age 60 I took tests from Life Length, where doctors measured the length of my telomeres. They determined that my biological age is 42 years old. A week after this, Terry Grossman's laboratory sent results from other, non-telomere-related tests. They also determined my age to be 42. To be honest, as a child I imagined 60-year-old people to be completely different, and it’s an amazing feeling.

I take into account all the theories of aging that exist today and do everything I can: I lead a healthy lifestyle, include antioxidants, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids in my diet, exercise, try to reduce stress and the amount of junk in my life and be optimist. The main thing to know is that death most often occurs only when telomeres become shorter: chromosomes, in fact, simply begin to split at the ends. This process is likely to cause many diseases: cancer, cardiovascular pathologies, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis and muscle wasting.

You run a lot. What does it take to start running?

To start running, you need to walk. Walking is just as good as running - it just takes longer. “Get up and go” is what they say at my favorite running coaching group, Desert Sky Adventures. Most people who start walking a lot, at least six days a week, after a month or two can no longer stop themselves from running. The body becomes more energetic, joints work better. By the way, I first encountered pain in them when I took a break from running. But every time I return to this activity, the pain goes away, and after two to three weeks only pleasure remains.

What are the benefits of running?

This is surprising, but if you put the mouse on it every day treadmill and train her endurance, this will shorten her life. When running, a lot of free radicals appear in the body, which are very harmful to the mouse body. Mice have a terrible free radical problem - an oxidative stress problem - that causes them to age and die. However, things are different for people. Both humans and mice have antioxidants that scavenge free radicals. However, in mice their levels are very low: 10 times lower than in humans. When people stress themselves during endurance exercise, they, like mice, produce a lot of free radicals inside their bodies - but their antioxidant levels spike, resulting in lower levels of oxidative stress than when they don't exercise.

There are scientific publications that say that the more you train endurance, the longer your telomeres. I was leery of this 25 years ago, but am now surprised at how many 80-year-olds want to run 100 miles and forget they're old. They are active like teenagers and they are very good runners. When I was running my first 100 miles, a 75-year-old woman told me she would run alongside me to show me how to behave in ultramarathons. When we reached 85 miles, she remarked, “You seem to be doing well. I'll step on the gas, see you later." She rushed forward and beat me by half an hour. There was no way I could compete with her. She's 90 now and still runs. My biological age is still 42 years old now, and I started running ultramarathons 26 years ago, when I was 38 or 39.

Which of your ultramarathons was the most difficult?

La Ultra The High in the Himalayas, in North India. There are other challenging ultramarathons around the world, such as the summer's 135-mile Badwater, in Death Valley, at 54 degrees Celsius. I ran it twice, but it wasn't half as hard as La Ultra. The highest points of its route are at an altitude of 5.5 km above sea level, the lowest - at an altitude of 3.3 km. When I took part in this ultramarathon, the length of the route was 222 km. Non-stop.

I was one of three runners who participated in the race in its first year. Then the government was sure that it was impossible to overcome this distance in such conditions; not a single person could cope with it. Organizers sent out invitations to 25 runners who had already tried routes like Badwater, and 22 of them declined. On the appointed day, there were only three people at the starting line - and two, including me and my wife Molly Sheridan, ended up in the hospital. Only one guy from Great Britain finished, barely making it on time. My wife returned to La Ultra The High after a year to finish it, and I returned two years later. Molly became the first American woman and the second oldest person on the list of runners to do this, and I was the oldest.

The first year I had a gallstone attack at mile 50. I thought I was going to die. I didn’t have altitude sickness, but in the second year of the ultramarathon, many athletes had to quit the race because of it. I'm really looking forward to another opportunity to take part in La Ultra The High. Now the distance is 333 km and I want to run them. So far, only one person has managed to complete this distance.

You are a fighter.

No, I think it's just fun, it's an adventure. I can't live without adventures, but The best way to get involved in them is to be in motion. Coming soon documentary“The High,” which my wife starred in. This picture clearly shows that such competitions are, first of all, communication.

Is your work in medicine like a marathon?

When I started the company, I said to myself, “This is my new ultramarathon.” I spent 100% of my time on it, barely ran for several years and ended up gaining 45 kg. I started having all the problems that are usually associated with being overweight, and my doctor said, “Get back to your ultramarathons or you’ll die.” I started running again, and now I have no plans to stop. I've set my priorities and try to stay in good shape. This is no good: curing humanity of old age and dying due to health problems, so that then everyone except myself will enjoy the fruits of my work. I am confident that there will be a drug that will increase our lifespan by lengthening telomeres and reversing aging. I think we will have this medicine in three years.

Why after three?

Because we have gone beyond our past achievements and are making new discoveries. First, we found a substance that allowed us to produce 1% of monotelomerase in cells, which was necessary to stop the process of shortening telomere length. Then we discovered other substances and got to 5%. Then they started working in the field of medicinal chemistry and rose to 60%. We recently assessed our progress and saw that in a year it will be 100% if we find a source of unlimited funding. However, we don't have it yet. So we think with the funds that I hope we will soon receive, it will take us three years.

To make this drug in the US, we will have to test on animals. I would really like to avoid this, but unfortunately they are required by FDA regulations. Perhaps we will develop a product that can be sold in other countries, and then such trials will not be necessary. Frankly, I don't think they are needed: all the animals on which drugs are legally required to be tested do not age due to shortening of telomere length. The main animal in this area is the mouse, and in its case we will not be able to see anything. There are, of course, those Harvard mice, and maybe we can do tests on them. But the problem is that even in these mice, the mechanism for producing telomerase is very different from that of humans. It was created artificially, and there is a possibility that the medicine will not work. So, once everything is ready, we will probably try to enter the market outside the US. I work a lot with South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and China and I know that it is easier to do it there. Of course, it’s not nice to think about commerce here, but for people to be able to use the tool, there must be access to it. I believe that at first there will be many people for whom such medicine will be vital.

Every time someone dies, I think it's our failure. I want this to end as soon as possible. I don’t know what laws regulate the production of drugs in Russia, but I think it would be great if this drug appeared in your country too.

Russian biochemist Vladimir Skulachev is also developing anti-aging drugs. I talked to him five years ago, but then he didn't mention telomeres.

Telomeres are a fairly recent idea. We didn’t tell anyone about our research until 2008, and then, due to funding difficulties, we decided to present it to the public. Then the economic crisis began, and all my investors lost the opportunity to invest in the project. We were the first to work in this area and achieved success, so our developments received a wide response. But even today, 99% of people know nothing about telomeres. And yet I think they are associated with one of the biggest breakthroughs in the field of medicine. People have been talking about a cure for old age and eternal youth for thousands of years, and today no one pays attention to this topic, but this is about to change. Once big discoveries happen, people will begin to move away from old ideas and see that this is now real science.

Why do you so want to conquer old age and death?

I love to live. I want to do this for as long as I can. My father changed terribly in his old age due to Alzheimer's disease, and my mother became disabled. Father needs the help of nurses, mother is close to this. I don't want to go through this and I don't want to see anyone else go through it. It's not just a matter of old age - it's a matter of illness. They are the main reason why people do not want to live long. Scientists have already done so much to increase the duration of human life, but have not yet been able to significantly increase the duration of its healthy period. As a result, many people have to undergo heart surgery, coronary bypass surgery, chemotherapy and other procedures to help them survive. In 20 years, about 40% of the world's population will be over 65 years old. There will be a lot of old people in the world, especially in China, South Korea and the USA. Russia will also face this problem. In all these countries there will be a colossal need for medical care. So when students ask me which specialty to choose, I say nursing. This is the number one profession of the future, which will be the most in demand and highly paid in the world.

And yet we don’t need old people lying in hospitals, needing someone else’s care. I want people over 60 to dance, play tennis and enjoy their free time. They must be healthy. That is why you need to think more about the duration of a healthy period of life than about its duration as a whole. When its boundaries become wider, its lifespan will increase as well.

I want people to live for a very long time, perhaps several hundred years, without showing signs of decline. And yet we do not call cells without shortened telomeres immortal. Telomerase will not save humanity from death. People will still die in car accidents or on train tracks, and there will still be diseases in the world - after all, not all of them, not even all cancers, arise from shortening telomeres. However, on average things will change a lot. We will see many people who are de facto old and at the same time very young biologically.

Why do you love life so much?

I love adventure. I love nature, discoveries captivate me. I can't wait for people to discover life on other planets. I want to be here when it happens and be part of the research as we try to find out what these living things are. There are so many discoveries ahead, and I want to be a part of them. I am fascinated by the study of the ocean on Earth and the DNA of the creatures that live in it.

Growing up, my siblings were just as passionate about science and medicine as I was. When I was 10, I dreamed of having a telescope so I could look at the stars. I got a toy telescope for Christmas that year, and it upset me so much that I burst into tears. My parents were so shocked by how seriously I took it all that they bought me the mirror telescope I wanted. It was 2.5 meters long, 200 mm in diameter. An unthinkable gift for a 10 year old. Every night I hung out in the yard, looking at Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its rings, and constantly running into the house, calling my parents and brothers and sisters to look at them too. There, near the telescope, my father once said to me: “You are so passionate about science and medicine. You should become a doctor when you grow up and find a cure for old age.” I've been obsessed with this for 53 years now. Every time I think: “God, what a great idea!”

I love life because you can learn anything. That's the whole point of adventure. What's around the next corner, what's going to happen in a few years? This is why I find it easy to run 100 mile marathons. I always want to go further and see what's there. I'm so focused on what's ahead that I lose track of time. Sometimes running 100 miles seems so easy and takes so little time. You know, the marathon route is sometimes circular, and sometimes linear, when the finish point is completely different from the starting point. Last time it was like this; I ran to the finish line, and we drove back to the start by car, and I was shocked by how far they were from each other. I didn't feel it at all while running.

You get so much more adventure when you get up and move forward. You can find yourself where no one can go, see an untouched landscape. At some ultramarathons, food and water can only be obtained if a helicopter brings it. I cannot live without such competitions.

And I like to communicate with people. Every time I meet someone it's a new adventure. I think if I ever get tired of living, it will only be if I lose my health and someone has to take care of me. This has never happened to me before, and I am doing everything to prevent this from happening. Surprisingly, caring for someone in this way also causes telomeres to shorten. Research is now being carried out with the participation of people who are professionally involved in this, and the organizers were able to find out that illness or old age, in fact, has a bad effect not only on the patient, but also on his assistants.

By the way, you seem to be criticized by Christians - mainly for trying to change the duration of human life.

No, actually, it's funny, but we discovered that this is not the case. One of our most enthusiastic potential investors right now is Catholic Hospital. And other representatives of the Catholic Church even wrote an entire chapter for my book, Curing Aging. They explained why this could be part of the plan of creation. According to the Bible, God drove people out of Eden, and one of the qualities we lost after that was immortality. We began to grow old after the fall, and God wants us to one day get rid of this and regain our eternal life.

You had to go through many difficult moments in search of investment and recognition in the scientific world. What keeps you going?

The most difficult thing in such work is financing. I lost it so many times: there was no money even for employee salaries. But each time I managed to somehow escape by taking the rabbit out of the hat at the last moment. What keeps me going is my belief in what we are doing. She is very strong. When I think about how we might fail because of money, I realize that no one will continue to do our work for us. I'm just afraid that if we lose, in 300-400 years someone will realize we were right and I'll end up in a history book saying, "Bill Andrews did it 400 years ago but couldn't finish the job." because of money problems." This depresses me so much! My only goal in life is to conduct research and prove that increasing the length of telomeres significantly increases life expectancy and the duration of its healthy period. Perhaps there are other reasons for aging. But our discoveries should give me another 20-30 years of life before I can find out. If we put together all the research that is currently being done, we will see that we can soon achieve immortality. The hope is that this will happen while our generation is still alive - especially if we can extend our stay here thanks to telomerase.