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The New Science of Aging

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Canada's Olga Kotelko, at 90, at the Masters Games in Sydney, Oct. 16, 2009. (AP)
Canada's Olga Kotelko, at 90, at the Masters Games in Sydney, Oct. 16, 2009. (AP)

Olga Kotelko is 91 years old.

But get her in her spandex, out on the track, and she is a demon.

She runs – yes, really runs – the hundred meter dash. She does the long jump and throws the javelin forty-plus feet. She also throws the shot put, swings the hammer, over her head, and lets it fly.

All this, at ninety-one.

We’ve got lots of headlines this week on what holds the deterioration of aging at bay. Mice going from creaky to buff with some chromosome work. Exercise is being touted as the big elixir.

We get the latest science, and talk with wonder woman Olga Kotelko.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:

Dr. Ronald DePinho, cancer researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a professor at Harvard Medical School. He led a study in which researcher succeeded in making mice age rapidly –and then reversing the aging process.  The study was just published in the journal Nature.

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has done extensive research into the aging process and especially into how exercise prevents and possibly even reverses aging.

Olga Kotelko, a 91-year old medal-winning track and field athlete in the master competition. She races, does the long jump, throws the javelin, hammer and shot put. She holds two world records in javelin for women over 85.

See a video of Olga swinging the hammer, and read a recent New York Times profile.

More on reverse-aging in mice — and the deep science of aging:

Rejuvenating effects of  telomerase activation in mice.  Left, 48-week-old TERT-ER mouse with activated telomerase.  Right, 35-week-old TERT-ER mouse, not treated. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Rejuvenating effects of telomerase activation in mice. Left, 48-week-old TERT-ER mouse with activated telomerase. Right, 35-week-old TERT-ER mouse, not treated. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Chromosome spreads showing telomere elongation after telomerase activation (right). DNA in blue, telomeres in red. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Chromosome spreads showing telomere elongation after telomerase activation (right). DNA in blue, telomeres in red. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Rejuvenation of testicular tissue after telomerase activation. Left, TERT-ER mouse, not induced; right, TERT-ER mouse, induced. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)
Rejuvenation of testicular tissue after telomerase activation. Left, TERT-ER mouse, not induced; right, TERT-ER mouse, induced. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)

This program aired on December 3, 2010.

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