So, I was on the website known as 4chan, lurking at some posts on /sci/ (the board is called "science" just in case ya'll don't know.) and trying to find something interesting. When I suddenly found myself looking at this picture of how telomeres work and why they're the reason we age.
So i ended up asking myself... how do we slow or stop telomeres from shortening?
Here's the post if ya'll want to see (hope it didn't 404 by the time you see it -.-): http://boards.4chan.org/sci/thread/9069182
So, I found myself searching how to do what I'm asking when I come across a study from Harvard. Here it is if you want to see it: http://newatlas.com/telomerase-aging-harvard-reverse-process-telomeres/17107/
Basically, it talks about how people at Harvard tested mice with using telomerase as a base of elongating the telomeres and hoping to see the aging process (technically) slow. But it was even better (or worse if you would like to imagine), the mice instead started REVERSING in age. Biologically, this shouldn't happen, but then again telomerase works different in mice than it does humans.
So, theoretically, we could do the same to us and slow our aging process by, let's say, 2 times. This comes with a few problems though. Mice use telomerase all throughout their lives while humans shut off that function in our early adult lives, in order to lessen the chances of cancer to grow in our bodies. So if we were to turn that function on as adults, we would have the more likelihood of having cancer. But here's my solution to that, stem cells and Ketogenic enzymes.
Now, the stem cells would work for the fact as counter-acting the cancer cells since stem cells can be any cell it wants. And the Ketogenic enzymes would work because (in theory) they have properties that kinda "shield" the cells in your body and slow down mitosis, therefore slowing down the cancer.
Anyway, this is just MY solution of having pseudo-immortality. But what are ya'll's thoughts on this? Because I ain't no biomedical engineer (or even a college graduate for that matter, just a 15 year old spouting nonsense :P) but I would really like some insight on this. Thanks!
