TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Baja News Wire

The £400 test that tells you how long you'll live

DNA breakthrough heralds new medical era – and opens ethical Pandora's box

A blood test that can show how fast someone is ageing – and offers the tantalising possibility of estimating how long they have left to live – is to go on sale to the general public in Britain later this year.
The controversial test measures vital structures on the tips of a person's chromosomes, called telomeres, which scientists believe are one of the most important and accurate indicators of the speed at which a person is ageing.


The results of the tests might also be of interest to companies offering life-insurance policies or medical cover that depend on a person's lifetime risk of falling seriously ill or dying prematurely.

Scientists behind the €500 (£435) test said it will be possible to tell whether a person's "biological age", as measured by the length of their telomeres, is older or younger than their actual chronological age. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...e-2284639.html

Would love to see some long term data on how accurate the test really is...

The very ugly downside- "The results of the tests might also be of interest to companies offering life-insurance policies or medical cover that depend on a person's lifetime risk of falling seriously ill or dying prematurely."

Just call me a cynic, but it appears to me that this is the wheelhouse of the test.

That said, even if this process was to be proven scientifically, I'm reminded of how many couples, the wife pregnant, do not opt to determine the gender of their baby.

AHHHH this is just another VIAGRA commercial.