http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/new-blood-test-will-tell-you-how-long-you-will-live
A new test set to hit the market in Britain in the next year aims to tell patients how long they have to live, and naturally that’s not happening without controversy. The test measures a person’s telomeres, those structures found on the tips of chromosomes. The length of telomeres apparently correlates with how fast a person is aging biologically, and hence researchers want to offer individuals some insight into just how much longer their bodies can hold up.
Well, some researchers do. Others aren’t so sure it’s a great idea. The test, developed at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, will be marketed via the company Life Length, which is in talks with medical diagnostics companies across Europe. When it goes on sale next year it will cost roughly $700.
It works pretty simply: provide a blood sample, and the test checks the length of your telomeres, which are basically used to determine your biological age. Research has shown that those with shorter than normal telomeres have shorter average life spans than those with longer telomeres. They also might have a severe case of telomere anxiety that they didn’t know they had previously.
Critics see that as a problem. Aside from the fact that insurance companies might start requiring telomere testing and using it to determine life insurance and health insurance rates, it might also stoke peoples’ fears of death--and open them up to scams and bad medicine purporting to extend their telomeres/lives.
That all sounds like an interesting backdrop for a novel (perhaps one set in a not too distant future dystopian New York and written by Gary Shteyngart), but some are afraid that such a test would open a Pandora’s Box that we couldn’t put the lid back on. The price might be the more controversial part; $700, and let’s face it: no one’s telomeres are going to be quite long enough.
This blogger has some good points about this test.
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/how-long-will-you-live/
Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 29,112 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke.DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER, BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.
Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.
What this blog is for:
My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.
Friday, May 20, 2011
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