Hi, All!

Well, I did a little search on telomeres after my last post, and found an
abstract of a paper that indicates that the length of telomeres tends to
depend on selection--in high risk environments, short ones are selected in;
in lower risk environments, longer ones are selected in.  The kicker is
that short telomeres oppose tumor formation, while longer telomers oppose
the aging process.  Senescence or cancer, take your pick.

I do wonder what the implications of this are for our Paleo
forebearers.  For the times that they were the prey, their telomeres must
have been shorter, and got longer as their predators died out.  But then
there should have been more tumors.  I haven't heard anything about
that.  What I read says that they had the perfect combination of foods and
life styles, leading to a long life and little cancer.  Any comments?

Check it out at:

        http://www.telomere.org/abstract_slowfuse.html

Jane
Tucson, AZ  USA