It seems appropriate that an anti-aging solution would be marketed in Florida, as told in Science Fiction Has Become Reality with Remarkable Anti-Aging Treatment Breakthrough - Turning Back the Biological Clock in Aging. (Recall that Juan Ponce De Leon searched thoroughly throughout Florida for the mythical Fountain of Youth. Something I did not know - he accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second journey to the Americas.)
As told in the article above, Dr. Al Sears is providing treatments of TA-65 through his private practice in Royal Palm Beach. The theory is that TA-65 lengthens telomeres. A telomere is a replicated section of DNA at the end of a chromosome that apparently serves to protect the ends of the chromosomes from destruction. The enzymes that duplicate DNA will halt duplication at telomeres; otherwise the duplication would proceed past the end of the chromosome. The telomere becomes shorter after every cell division, functioning as countdown timer. Usually the telomere mechanism limits cells to a fixed number of cellular divisions. There appears to be a balance between aging and cancer, as the telomere process is often disabled in cancerous cells.
The TA Sciences website explains that TA-65 is a natural molecule that activates the telomerase enzyme which inhibits telomere shortening - hence effectively halting the aging process. The company's product originates as the root of the Astragalus plant, harvested in China. (I am not making this up - Wiki tells that a member of the Astragalus genus is locoweed.) After proprietary processing of the root, the TA-65 product is produced. The TA Sciences website tells that the Astragalus root is a common ingredient of Chinese herbal medicine.
What do you think? Could Ponce De Leon have actually walked over a plant that was the Fountain of Youth that he was looking for?
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