Hello. I recently watched a short documentary on why we die. Although i may of missed a few steps along the way the basic jist of it seems to be are cells are programmed with a number of possible divisions that can happen before they cant divide anymore due to a protective sealant on the tips of the DNA standards (i cant remember the name of it). However when a Cancer cell divides the sealant it has dose not get any shorter, so it can divide an infinite number of times. Could this be the key to prolonging the human life span ? now i have no clue and genetic engineering or anything like that but i can help see the two point and stick them together with this. also im not even suggesting this is a simple plan that can be done in 20 mins or no one has ever thought of this. i know enough to know we still have very little knowledge on the genetic structure. But for what i have been reading a lot of effort has been spent trying to increase out life span and there are multiple ways of doing it. For now though i can only see the ironic part about Cancer being a disease that kills us could possibly be the same key to a longer life.
It's not a 'sealant', it's that the DNA strand becomes shorter - that part that shortens is called a telomere. Yes, research on cancer "may" provide a answer for the aging process.
Yes sealant was not the best word for it but from what i saw and read its there to protect the DNA strand from errors and things like that. But thank you for clarifying that it is a possibility.
The telomere timing chain may just be what allows us to live as long as we do. Every day, every cell in our bodies undergoes ~10,000 DNA breaks and for the most part, our DNA repair activity fixes things up. Occasionally, it doesn't and a cell begins to divide continuously. Without the telomere chain death, each of these would be like a cancer and overwhelm the body. But by HUGE proportion, they don't. They just die away and the rest of the body goes on just fine. So, the telomere chains that give us 3 score and 10, protect us from dying of something similar to cancer as an infant. I'd say that is a good trade. To live a longer life, figure out how to lengthen the chain while fully adult, not eliminate it. Of course, that may just allow you to live on in the decrepitude of extreme old age.
this is wrong. science has the structure of DNA down cold. i think you might be referring to sequencing problems. for example: a certain sequence of bases produces, for example, a certain protein. what would happen if one or more of those bases was changed?
Depends on how you interpret it. "science has the structure of DNA down cold.", maybe, but they don't quite understand all the implications of enzyme production. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/cell5.htm Just as background...
One thing that is missing from the discussion, is the role of nervous tissue on cell differentiation control. Nerve tissue is smart tissue, building like a tree, from branch tips, toward larger and larger branches, ultimately wired into the trunk/spine and finally the brain. This smart tissue is found near all the cells of the body, beyond the blood cells. As far as I know, nerve tissue is not found within growing cancers as part of this make-up. Cancer exists outside the control loop. Cancer and cell death, suggests that nerve tissue control might not be optimized for eternal life, if the control system over controls or under controls. However, there should be sweet spot that allows rapid cancer like regeneration of healthy cells, but with the control needed for precise cell replacement. At birth, through life, the brain periodically takes a snap shot of all the cells, like system backup, and can use this as the control template. The way this works is with ion pumping, which is something all cells can do. The neurons and nerve tissues take this one step further and can externalize these ionic fluxes between neurons and throughout the body. This interfaces our cells impacting the cell membrane. When cells divide their cations reverse, loosely similar to the what neurons do to generate memory; memory generated replication based on a backup memory.
You are referring to telomeres, and telomere erosion is one of the more important methods of ensuring apoptosis (programmed cell death.) Could be, except that all those cancers would kill you very quickly.
Neurons do not replicate after a certain point in development. If the telomere theory is correct neurons/brain would be immortal. On the other hand, certain cell types divide constantly and should be the main source of problems leading to death. This is not exactly observed. Say we nevertheless employ the telomere theory, the brain and nervous system, by being designed not to divide, would also be designed not to age, so its functions remain the most constant. The neurons form branches, instead of replicate, and will continue to grow like seeds into trees. This suggest a brain control system with both long term and short term backup. For example, if I exercise and I control my diet, I can alter my body mass index as well as the degree of muscularity. My DNA might suggest 150 pounds, due to my family tree, but I want to be 200 pounds for my sport. This change all begins in the brain. I can control whether muscle grow/divide, which in turn, filters to other aspects of the body, maintaining balancing proportions. The muscles have a high proportion of nerve tissue allowing more conscious control. There are many body systems, wired into the brain, with less nerve tissue connectivity. These are under unconscious control for limited access. If I stop exercising my body will lose muscle mass back to the DNA 150 pound, backup, engrained in the long term control system. If you look at the nervous system, from brain to the cell interface, it is like a tree dividing into smaller and smaller branches, with each branch division a memory junction that has a level of local control. Superimposed on this, like fiber optics, are signals to and from the main frame parts of the brain and the cells, that can receive feedback and send fine tuning signals, based on a perpetual backup copy; neuron don't divide. Cancer, like bacteria and virus, exists outside the control system. The lymphatic system also branches near the same cells as does the nervous control system, with these two in communication. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The observation that cancer cells and other cellular invaders, like bacteria, can divide quickly in the human body, while the cells of the human body are much more controlled, suggests the brain and nervous system operate as a negative control system or the main function is to inhibit cell division. This would also explain why we stop growing earlier compared to dinosaurs. As the brain and nervous system develop, they increase their control system feedback energy, until they inhibit system wide growth. This would suggest the large size of the dinosaurs was due to a much smaller brain control output, that that could not offer sufficient resistance; they would continued to grow. The down sizing of animals, reflected more brain control system energy, resulting in smaller steady state size. One theory for this is; When any cell prepares to divide, the sodium and potassium ions reverse more frequency, due to membrane unsaturation. The membrane is looser and the cations can diffuse back and forth easier, changing the membrane potential; gets lower. One way to trick the cationic balance, is to use the nerve tissue to supplement the cationic imbalance, so the membrane potential stays closer to inactive. This can be done in two ways. The stronger brain and nervous system, which is always firing (brain waves) is pumping sodium ion currents fortifying the sodium balance. While the sensory nerves, can absorb potassium ions after they fire and reset, changing the potassium balance.
The question I will ask is, are cancer tumors connected to the nervous system? If some are, is the nerve tissue in proportion to that found in the native tissues from which the cancer stems? The simplest way to control a range of cell types, with a nerve based control schema, is to change the proportion of nerve tissue and circulatory tissue around each system type. This changes the amount of nerve signal/per control cell in proportion to blood potential; dial the DNA. The questions are, is cancer connected to the nerve system? If so in some cases, has the proportion changed relative to the native cells from which it appears? If so, do tumors with nerve cells, remain dormant longer than those without? I have done google searches and the nerve ratio never appears, either way. Maybe an insider can tell us. I am all for change, but I hang on developing a concept ,until someone points out a wall, then I reroute.
The brain not only interfaces differentiated cells, with nervous tissue, but it also indirectly interfaces to these, via blood supply. If we sense a threat, the adrenal gland is activated to get the body ready for fight and flight. The brain begins the process though awareness and firmware. This tweak impacts the blood supply, which is another way for the brain to offer control. The brain is interesting in that it has a blood brain barrier (BBB). Relative to brain's control system, the BBB, allows the brain to control the blood potential, but not the other way around. From a practical POV, this allows the nervous signals aspect, to the cells, to remain somewhat steady, even when the brain tweaks the blood supply. This is a simple way to control the potential between the nervous tissue and blood supply. The blood is slightly alkaline (negatively charged) while nerve tissue is positively charged due to sodium cation flux and the direction of the membrane potential. The control cells see this gradient. Relative to cancer, they only see the blood potential, but lose the nerve potential.
