Saturday, October 2, 2010

Grow Tall with Astragalus

Previously, in the study on telomeres, it was mentioned that there were some compounds that stimulated telomerase activity but I was unable to find what the compounds were.  Loss of telomeric repeats has been linked to replicative senescence so any increase in telomerase activity could result in further height growth(and thereby help you grow tall).

From Regulation of Telomerase Activity by Apparently Opposing Elements:


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Yes TGF Beta does downregulate Telomerase activity and LSJL upregulates TGF Beta activities according to the Gene Expression profile(Lateral Joint Loading upregulates genes involved in the TGF Beta, Wnt, PI3K, and ECM receptor pathway).  Lateral Joint Loading upregulates three anabolic pathways and one mixed anabolic/catabolic pathway(TGF Beta).  It could be why I and others have reached a diminishing returns plateau with LSJL and perhaps we need to increase our telomerase activity to surpass it.  You may notice Ast in the anabolic(Yang column).

The Chinese herb Astragalus

"Astragalus contains antioxidants which protect cells against damage caused by free radicals. Astragalus' downstream targets include telomeres and their maintenance. TAT2 the drug extract from the Astragalus root, Astragalus membranaceus (Huang Qi) exerts its effect on telomerase. Exposure of CD8+ T cells from HIV-infected human donors to TAT2 inhibited telomere shortening, increased the proliferative potential of the cells, and, importantly, enhanced cytokine/chemokine production and antiviral activity. The telomerase dependent specificity of TAT2 is demonstrated by an effect of telomerase inhibitor.  Telomere maintenance is required for all cells undergoing clonal expansion. Telomere maintenance is affected [by] hTERT[A telemorase transcription factor] expression and hTERT protein phosphorylation. Constitutive over-expression of hTERT leads to increased maintenance of telomeres by telomerase."


The telomerase activator TA-65 elongates short telomeres and increases health span of adult/old mice without increasing cancer incidence.

"a small-molecule activator of telomerase (TA-65) purified from the root of Astragalus membranaceus is capable of increasing average telomere length and decreasing the percentage of critically short telomeres and of DNA damage in haploinsufficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) that harbor critically short telomeres and a single copy of the telomerase RNA Terc gene (G3 Terc(+/-) MEFs). Importantly, TA-65 does not cause telomere elongation or rescue DNA damage in similarly treated telomerase-deficient G3 Terc(-/-) littermate MEFs. These results indicate that TA-65 treatment results in telomerase-dependent elongation of short telomeres and rescue of associated DNA damage, thus demonstrating that TA-65 mechanism of action is through the telomerase pathway. In addition, we demonstrate that TA-65 is capable of increasing mouse telomerase reverse transcriptase levels in some mouse tissues and elongating critically short telomeres when supplemented as part of a standard diet in mice."

Astragalus is available for sale: Astragalus Root 180 vcaps.  It's advertised for the immune system but it should have positive effects on other cells too.  It could increase the replicative potential for growth plate chondrocytes and could counteract the negative feedback mechanism of TGF-Beta induced by LSJL.

5 comments:

  1. What if you took this while having (slightly) open growth plates?

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  2. Then yup it could work. Astragalus is pretty cheap so there's a low opportunity cost. If you see some activity on the x-ray then there's definitely more growth going on as x-ray's aren't three dimensional and bones are.

    The theory is very good but increasing telomere chains could be a necessary but not sufficient condition(you could need more things like a DNA Methyltransferase simulator like SAM-e).

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  3. TCD, how many of these theories/methods are you currently putting into action? Just the LSJL at the moment?

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  4. I'm doing LSJL, taking Lithium, Melatonin, and Chondroitin+Glucosamine. I'd like to do other stuff but not enough cash at the moment.

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  5. The active molecule in astragalus is an extremely rare occurring molecule. You would have to drink up to 5 gallons of astragalus tea to have any chance of activating telomerase and lengthening telomeres.Also,a number of astragalus extracts have been tested and none contained the molecule TAT2(TA-65).
    There is thought that if one started drinking astragalus tea at an early age and continued throughout life they may see a benefit.
    AT this time the only commercially available product that has been proven to activate telomerase and lengthen telomere in published research is TA-65.You can find the paper at TA Sciences website

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