60-year-old biotech ultramarathoner shares tips for fighting aging

When 97.3 KIRO FM talk host Terry Jaymes was Googling how to live longer, he ran across an article on a 60-year-old determined to extend the human lifespan.

Dr. Bill Andrews, 60, has spent 28 years in the biotech industry. He currently heads up scientific research at Sierra Sciences, a company “devoted to finding ways to extend our healthspans and lifespans beyond the theoretical maximum of 125 years.”

Andrews himself appears in impressive health at age 60, competing in at least one 50 to 100-mile-race a month.

“I think it’s one of the best things humans can do to extend their life spans and health spans,” said Andrews.

Andrews’ main tool for his fight against aging is the scientific work being done to intervene in the telomere shortening in human cells.

“I’ve looked at everything, but it was about 20 years ago when I decided that telomeres are probably the most important thing,” said Andrews, providing a brief explanation of telomeres for the Terry Jaymes Alive audience.

“We learned a long time ago that telomeres which are the very tips of our chromosomes get shorter as people age. In fact, it is a very precise clock that ticks inside ourselves. We can actually isolate telomeres from a person, measure the length of them and tell that person how old they are, and more importantly we can tell how long it will be before they will die of old age.”

When a person is conceived, Andrews said they have 15,000 base pairs of telomeres. He said that number drops at birth to 10,000, and then once that number drops to 5,000 a person will die of old age.

“Your cells just lose the ability to function when telomeres get that short,” said Andrews.

But Andrews said there is promising research that indicates intervention in telomere shortening could help extend the human lifespan.

“Scientists now have, using telomere lengthening technology, been able to turn old mice into young mice now. It’s the first time in the history of the universe that anybody’s actually really done this. They take really old mice that can’t really do anything, and now they, after just three weeks of treatment, are running around like newborn mice.”

Andrews said there are already some products on the market that can slow telomere shortening.

“There’s some very preliminary natural products that are relatively weak. They’re still good, in fact, I take every one of them, because I believe they are at least slowing down my aging process,” said Andrews. “Everybody I know that’s been taking these things have been saying that their endurance is getting better, they’re [sleeping] better, on and on and on.”

Listen Dr. Bill Andrews shares products he uses on TJA

Andrews’ company is currently working to increase the potency of these products that inhibit shortening of telomeres, but he says a stronger product will likely be many years out as it would have to undergo FDA testing.

Terry Jaymes Alive can be heard on the new 97.3 KIRO FM Weekends Saturday at 3 p.m. and ON DEMAND anytime at MyNorthwest.com.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor