https://theconversation.com/a-new-study-shows-an-animals-lifespan-is-written-in-the-dna-for-humans-its-38-years-128623

Asking this because none of the 38 year olds I know are taking any medications and they look really young

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[–] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Unless I missed something, the word “telomere” doesn’t occur in the article or its source paper—rather, it discusses the rate of DNA methylation.

IMO, the key passage in the paper is this:

However, any genetic regulation for a species may potentially be a secondary factor as there may be other environmental selective pressures. This may be the case with species which have lifespans post reproductive age and therefore, there may be non-genetic factors that may be more predictive of their maximum lifespan.

I suspect that the methylation rate is actually tracking the end of the reproductive stage of the lifecycle, rather than the entire lifespan—it’s just that humans have an unusually long post-reproductive stage.

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  • [+] [S] -7 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    It's saying 38 is the maximum lifespan of a human, determined by genetics, and the only reason we can live past 38 is due to unnatural interventions ie medicine

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    It’s saying 38 is the maximum lifespan predicted by their model—but it also says their model has an R^2^ of 0.76, meaning it only predicts about 76% of the variation in the actual measured values. And then they discuss other factors that could account for the remaining 24% of the variation, including post-reproductive-age lifespan.

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