Monday, November 8, 2010

Moles linked with slower aging

The report Moles linked with slower aging prompted me to find the original article. It's in the July 2007 edition of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, "Nevus Size and Number Are Associated with Telomere Length and Represent Potential Markers of a Decreased Senescence In vivo". "Nevus" includes moles and other types of birthmarks. "Telomere" is the free-moving end of a chromosome; the longer the "telomere", the better, e.g. slower aging and possibly (not confirmed) lower risk of cancer. "Senescence" means aging. The study only includes white women. But we hope the link between more and bigger moles on your body and slower aging, also exists for people that are not white and female, and I wish the researchers had commented whether cosmetically removing the moles affects the mole count.

No comments: