Oliver Bogler <obogler at ucsd.edu> wrote:
>This is all very interesting, but you seem to unaware that there is no evidence of a
>connection between telomere length/cellular ageing and organismal ageing. Organismal
>ageing is better discussed in terms of mortality - no one dies of "old age". There is
>always a "pathology", and that has nothing to do with telomere length.
You are right to point out the shortcomings of the current 'Telomere'
theory of aging. Nevertheless, it is not entirely clear that no one
dies of 'old age'. Autopsy studies indicate that 20-30% of deaths in
the elderly cannot be attributed to a specific pathology. While this
may certainly be due to missed diagnoses, this proportion of 'unclear'
cause of death is higher than that seen in autopsy studies of younger
individuals. I think that the notion of dying of 'old age' i.e.
because of a limited lifespan that is not disease related remains open
for discussion. Any comments anyone ?
Jean-Pierre Issa MD
Johns Hopkins Oncology Center
