RE: The quest for elixir of life. Episode 5 - The tik-tok of telomeres
Wonderful to see you back, and congratulations on the new family member. I wonder, as you nurture her, how you will be influenced by your research.
Your article is particularly interesting to those of us who have read your previous posts and what I see as almost complementary posts by @chappertron on mitochondria.
I think I understood almost all of this (that's a tribute to your writing!) One part of the discussion that comes through is that fat is implicated. Perhaps it's not caloric intake as much as the amount of fat in a body that affects lifespan. Excess calories are stored as fat, are they not? And is there a difference between the telomeres in so-called brown fat vs white fat?
Thank you for this most interesting discussion. Have fun with the baby. If you have fun, so will she :))
Regards,
AG
Thanks @agmoore2. As far her nurture and my reasearch is concerned I have learnt a lot about affects of stress during early childhood on rest of the life. And I keep telling anyone involved in taking care of her to be super careful at least during first 5 years of her life. Idk, maybe I am just a little paranoid.
Fat obviously worsens the situation. Excess fat is known to increase chronic low grade inflammation which would then accelerate ageing for sure. For the excess calorie been stored part is quite true, however, we also need to consider what makes up those calories. Not every calorie is the same and lead to equivalent storage of fat. I think I have mentioned this somewhere previously that we do know calories overall impact ageing but which calories are more important than others remains an open question.
If you look at the paper by Miguel et al., show significant decrease in short telomeres in all metabolically relevant tissue - liver, WAT and BAT. And decrease in telomere loss in these tissue seems to be significant in metabolic ageing. But yes you are correct, some needs to delineate impact of telomeres from metabolic context in these tissues.
Also, the whole calorie or fat impacting ageing is a complex nexus. While on one hand fat seems to accelerate ageing there is also an independent component of ability of cells to understand the nutritional state of body and respond accordingly.@valued-customer points out interesting pathways in this context in their comment. The low-energy state can push the cells towards maintenance mode. (But be careful when it comes to low vs starvation, starvation is detrimental).
Thank you for that comprehensive response. I think, until science offers more definitive answers, the path forward for all of us (nutritionally) is to follow a path of moderation.
As for your child...so lucky to have a parent with the goal of reducing stress. Most parents pressure their kids to do this or that, to achieve, to meet some imagined goal. But you understand the toll ambition demands on a child. I never pressured my children, but I was under great stress as a young mother learning her way. I understand so much more now. I think grandparents make better parents. Why does nature arrange things that way? :))
Have a great day, and enjoy your daughter.
Regards, AG