LIFE> Health
|
LIFE> Health
|
|
Gaining weight and losing hair? You may live longer
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-17 09:32 "We estimate that 70 percent of old people whose TSH was minimally elevated and who were considered to have hypothyroidism were actually in their age-specific limits," Surks says. They singled out 200 Jews who had lived to be 100, and 400 of their children. Two genetic changes were linked with low thyroid function but also with extreme old age. Metabolic rate affects life span in animals. For instance, elephants have slow metabolic rates, slow heartbeats, and can live for decades, as opposed to mice, which have fast metabolisms and live for just months. It may be, Surks says, that people with low thyroid function in old age were "elephants" with a slow metabolism who can live longer, as compared to "mice" with fast metabolic rates who may have shorter natural life spans. "If you are an older person with high TSH, this suggests you are on the road to a long life," Surks says. What worries him is that millions of people in the United States are being treated for hypothyroidism. "In North America, thyroid hormone is used at the drop of a hat," he says. His group is seeking to see if that might interfere with a person's natural life span. Surks notes that having a low thyroid function before about age 50 is a separate condition and appropriately treated with hormones. He also plans studies to see what the biological function of having high TSH levels might mean for cells and aging. |
