Tech | May 16, 2011 | 4 comments

Do You Want To Know How Long You Will Live?

source: http://www.bigredkev.com/2011/05/do-you-want-to-know-how-long-you-will.html

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A blood test that will tell users how long they have left to live will go on sale in Britain later this year. The test - which will offer people the opportunity to estimate their lifespan will go on sale for £435.

The controversial technology has come under fire because critics say insurance companies will insist on them before offering policies. But scientists say the test could be vital in the study of age-related illnesses like Alzheimer's and Cancer.

Boffins working on the technology say they will be able to read a person's "biological age" by measuring structure on people's chromosomes called telomeres. The test cannot predict exactly how long a person will live for - but scientists are confident it can offer a reliable estimate.

Maria Blasco, from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, who invented the test, said: "We know that people who are born with shorter telomeres than normal also have a shorter lifespan.

"But we don't know whether longer telomeres are going to give you a longer lifespan. That's not really known in humans.

"What is new about this test is that it is very precise. We can detect very small differences in telomere length and it is a very simple and fast technique where many samples can be analysed at the same time.

"Most importantly, we are able to determine the presence of dangerous telomeres - those that are very short."
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4 comments // Do You Want To Know How Long You Will Live?

  • Warren_Merrill
    • +1
      Warren_Merrill  

    • Bob dies and goes to heaven. The next day he communicates from heaven to his living friend Bill on Earth.

      Bob: Bill, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is there's baseball in heaven. The bad news is you're scheduled to pitch next Friday.

    • 1 year ago
  • ahiguy
  • FlexSF
  • richjm
    • +1
      richjm  

    • If the test was cheaper, I'd probably be quite tempted to take it (if was easy enough and not invasive). I'd want to know the results mostly out of morbid curiosity but also in case there's things I could be doing to improve my chances of living a long, healthy life.

      The downside is exactly the one stated in the article: insurance companies using this to bump people's policies up. Ideally though, that would either be made illegal or companies insisted on a test would be shunned by the majority of the public.

    • 1 year ago
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