How long will you live?

Uncategorized | June 8, 2011 | Share

How long will I live? Everyone must have wondered this at one point of their lives or the other. Well now a blood test can tell you that. Scientists at Spanish Cancer Research Centre are developing a blood test that would show the speed of ageing and give an estimate of how long a person is going to live.

The test will measure the length of an individual’s telomeres (or caps) on the tips of the chromosomes. The shorter the tips, the faster the person will age. However the test cannot predict the exact number of days, months or year a person is going to live. Another blood test developed in the UK is all set to measure life span of a person.

They sound intriguing and are also a challenge for the science and technology in the twenty first century. But nothing is without its pros and cons. This test will make a revolutionary change in the medical department. But the storm is just restricted to medical science and it takes insurance companies in high tide.

The test will help predict various illnesses that a patient might suffer so precautions can be taken well in advance. It will also help researchers to find out the cause why there is difference in ageing in different people. Many new medicines can be found. It will pave the grounds for novel researches.

Many cosmetic companies can work on it and find out different ant-aging products.
But this test is not all. It’s not- that’s it! It can’t predict if a person can die of other reasons like electric shock, probability of being eaten away by a shark, beaten to death by your foe so on and so forth…

That means once the result is known it can take a toll on mental and emotional health. Psychologically it can make or break a person. If the test is positive then it’s a boom but just in any case the result is negative it can take a person into depression.

Even companies can misuse it by selling unproven anti-ageing products. Many insurance companies will also use it to give policies to people. Depending on the result a premium can be charged from people.

On knowledge of the result companies might make alteration in gratuity or pension given to their employees.

But all is not bad about this test. The technology is at a very nascent stage. And like every new technique there are inhibitions. But this is natural because the consequences can prove as discussed above quite disturbing.

The test needs to be more precise. All the success of this study depends on the accuracy of the test. Along with accuracy some new cures need to be worked out. The law on nature can’t be broken- who so ever is born on this Earth will have to die.

The access to the result of the test is debatable. The stage of this technology is nascent. A lot more needs to be done and lot of research needs to be done before this technique can grow. At the same time it requires a lot of money. For some the money spent is justified but for some it’s pointless. Everyone has their own reasons. As for now this will take some time till you can pen your own day of death.

Priyanka Gandhi