I’ve been fascinated lately with the ideas presented by Peter Diamandis and his projects including XPrize, Singularity University, Human Longevity, and other admirable projects focused on the future.
Have you heard of senolytics?
This word comes from “senescence” (aging or declining) and “lytic” (destroying”). As you can imagine from this combination, senolytics refers to molecules under research focused on selectively managing senescent (dying) cells and to improve longevity.
Longevity is a hot topic today, with leaders no longer looking at 65 as a milestone that means retirement and leaving the productive workforce. I know and work with many folks in their 70’s who believe they are just getting started on their next fantastic life phase.
Sound interesting?
I’ve been involved with the wonderful team at Apeiron and have become certified as an Epigenetics coach. I invite you to reach out to me if you are interested in learning what kind of information you can learn from your genes and how epigenetic interventions can dramatically improve your energy levels and performance. You can start by reading this blog post, where I go into detail about what you can learn from doing a straightforward (and inexpensive) DNA test.
Often when you hear the discussion around aging or longevity, you’ll hear a debate about telomere length. I won’t go into much detail in this post about telomeres (and the discussion is controversial).
However, I have a wonderful intern working with me on various aspects of human performance (including tracking blood markers), and he came across some research about telomere length and COVID. We were also interested in the markers that are tracked via the simple blood work that your doctor likely does with you at your annual visit: C-reactive protein and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio.
If you are a leader that wants to lead into the future, I urge you to get educated about the essential tool you have to lead into the future: your own brain and body.
From simple things like tracking your blood work and having your genes analyzed for optimal epigenetic interventions to more complex evaluations like a QEEG, the more you know about your brain-body system, the better. With knowledge is power. Power to take charge of your health to ensure that you are still full of energy for leading with passion into your 70s, 80s, 90s, and into your second century!
Now I’ll share the research that my intern found about telomere length and COVID.
Guest post by Larsen Bier
Telomere length appears to play a role in the outcome of severe-critical COVID-19 infections.
In a study conducted by Froidure et al., a sample of 70 individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19 was analyzed. Compared to a control cohort of 491 healthy volunteers, 40% of severe-critical patients had telomere lengths (TL) below the 10th percentile of the control group. For this group, there were two events statistically significant at the 5% level: the chance of admission in ICU or death and NLR (NOD-like receptors). Patients below the 10th percentile in terms of TL were more likely to be admitted to the ICU or die and had a higher median NLR than the group above the 10th percentile.
Furthermore, the study suggests a possible link between TL, C-reactive protein, and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio. TL is inversely correlated with each of these biomarkers; however, the correlations are not statistically significant, so more research is needed to determine whether the link is a coincidence.
Even though more data is necessary, a hypothesis by Abraham Aviv could shed some light on why this relationship might be valid. Aviv claims that shorter TL could possibly impact lymphocytes’ ability to divide quickly enough to counteract the loss due to infection with SARS-CoV-2. This, if indeed the case, could explain why severe COVID-19 patients with short TL also typically had higher neutrophil/lymphocyte ratios in Froidure et al.’s study.
Conclusion: The data suggest that telomere length could be a crucial factor contributing to a patients’ susceptibility to COVID-19. It is possible that other biomarkers, including neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and C-reactive protein, could be indicators of one’s telomere length. While there are currently insufficient data to guide treatment, the results highlight the potential of genetic testing and bloodwork analysis in identifying high-risk individuals.
References
Froidure A, Mahieu M, Hoton D, Laterre P, Yombi JC, Koenig S, Ghaye B, Defour J, Decottignies A. Short telomeres increase the risk of severe COVID-19. Aging (Albany NY). 2020; 12:19911-19922. https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.104097
Aviv A. Telomeres and COVID-19. The FASEB Journal. 2020;00:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202001025
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