Chromosomal instability in ulcerative colitis is related to telomere shortening.

Proof that this is aging us. Calorie restriction and fasting plus curcumin help with the telomere shortening.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12355086

London Lurker, I mentioned a few times here that meditation and the mind-body connection is a useful tool that's been used for centuries to help with illnesses since my therapist had me doing it as well as the book she told me to purchase, "wherever you go, there you are" by the author Jon Kabit-Zin and I watched a few youtube vidoes where Jon mentions the positive affect that it has on telomeres.

I'm glad some of the medical community is starting to integrate the mind-body connection back into medical mainstream it's just too bad all doctors don't discuss this with their patients as a norm because it could actually help a lot more people if docs did mention it so long as their patients take it upon themselves to incorporate it into their daily lives...sad thing is, this really isn't something new (meditating) yet many have convinced themselves that it won't work or they don't have time....which is sad cuz if you don't have 3 minutes a day to detach from this nut-job world then it's no wonder there are so many people that are coping poorly not only with health issues but life issues as well.

I learned a lot from the other book I've mentioned here as well, "when the body says no" by Dr. Gabor Mate, he also talks about telomeres as well, the saddest thing is people are more eager it seems, to pop a pill rather than touch base with themselves on a daily basis, not saying that some pills don't have their place, saying that incorporating meditation for a mere 3 minutes daily can have a pretty significant effect, likely even a boost for pills to work better in many if not the majority of cases.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water...

I don't think that's the way it works sibby...

Telomere length and telomerase activity are important factors in the pathobiology of human disease. Age-related diseases and premature ageing syndromes are characterized by short telomeres, which can compromise cell viability, whereas tumour cells can prevent telomere loss by aberrantly upregulating telomerase. Altered functioning of both telomerase and telomere-interacting proteins is present in some human premature ageing syndromes and in cancer, and recent findings indicate that alterations that affect telomeres at the level of chromatin structure might also have a role in human disease. These findings have inspired a number of potential therapeutic strategies that are based on telomerase and telomeres.

info is from this link;

http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v6/n8/full/nrg1656.html

Sorry pb4, you are misinterpreting the study. Sibby was correct.

There is no evidence that suggests that ulcerative colitis is associated with shortening of telomeres throughout the body (if there is, it is certainly not in this paper). Basically all that is seen in the paper is that when you compare people with ulcerative colitis who do not have cancer or dysplasia with people with ulcerative colitis who DO have cancer or dysplasia, the ones who have cancer or dysplasia have shortened telomeres and more chromosomal abnormalities. In fact, the UC patients who don't have cancer have more in common in this analysis with people who don't have UC.

It isn't well known from past literature that shortened telomeres is necessarily associated with chromosomal instability giving rise to cancer, which is why the paper was published/is interesting. It is really a paper about genetics and not a paper about UC, which is why it appears in a Genetics journal instead of a GI or medicine journal.

Thanks for the overview, Pluot. :)

No worries, pb4!