Re: Bio: Premature Aging; Also, Telomerase (was: Transplants)

=- deluxe -= (jeff@ultraviolet.com)
Mon, 27 Oct 1997 23:56:53 -0800 (PST)


>CALYK@aol.com writes:

>As far as I know, there are no known diseases that make humans grow up
>significantly faster than normally. Very early puberty is known, but
>it seems to be a hormonal problem and has nothing to do with overall
>development. Diseases that release large amounts of growth hormone of
>course speed up growth a lot, but it tends to be rather crude and
>leads to acromegalia.

Hmmm, perhaps I've been thinking about this wrong.. What about simple
differences between the rates of typical human growth. For instance, I'm
6'5" and was almost six feet before age 11. My girlfriend (ironically) is
about 5'3 and can still wear the same clothes that she wore at age 11.

Are there measurable hormonal levels or other factors which can be
atributed to say, my accelerated growth? Since we were originally
discussing how we could grow human body parts to adult size in a short
period, could we then just manipulate the chemical relationships which
naturally exist in the body to encourage a hyper-growth state???

jeff taylor