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Little girl who may hold the secret to aging

macleans little girl aging

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#1 DavidLee

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 02:58 PM


Hi,

 

This is my first (non-intro) post so I can't post any links.

 

I just ran across a link in an email from DIGG talking about a new article on the MacLeans website called:

 

"The little girl who may hold the secret to aging"

 

If you find that article on their website it's pretty interesting.

 

Interestingly enough, apparently she lives about half an hour from me.  Snippet from the article:

 

"These pictures are a timeline of five-year-old Mackenzee’s life so far, and they reveal something startling: From one year to the next, as the number-shaped cakes tick upward, this girl has barely aged. Today, about to turn six, Mackenzee weighs 16 lb. and measures just under 30 inches. Doctors and specialists say that, physically and cognitively, she’s the age of a six-month-old baby."

 

Could be an interesting medical example of increased (or slowed) life span?

 

At any rate, it's just out on MacLeans today and was an interesting read.

 

David

 

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#2 Turnbuckle

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 04:32 PM

From the picture it appears she is aging quite rapidly, but is not maturing.



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#3 Jun Han

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 04:54 PM

The link for the article at MacLeans is http://www.macleans....ecret-to-aging/

Spoiler

 

She is also featured in other articles, namely "Arrested Development" by Virginia Hughes at MosaicScience, re-titled as "Ageing: The girls who never grow older" at BBC. A briefer article at news1130. Quite interesting actually.

 

Few important keys from those articles to be noted:

"No medical expert has ever been able to explain Mackenzee’s condition; all genetic and chromosomal tests come back normal."

"Wittke is now involved in a study with six other girls all suffering from a similar condition. Dr. Walker is sequencing their genomes and could have some results as early as next month."

 

Currently, these cases are being dealt with by experts such as Eric Schadt, the director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Steve Horvath, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angelesand Richard Walker, a retired professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Nothing can be concluded until the results of the sequencing are analyzed, so we may need to wait quite awhile for this.

 

 


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#4 Mind

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 06:32 PM

I wonder if they have tested hormone levels, just a guess - something messed up with her endocrine system, maybe not much growth hormone...doesn't necessarily have to be genetic.


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#5 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 06:46 PM

This is not the only one child, that seems not to age.

 

 

 

N1:

 

Brooke Greenberg (http://en.wikipedia....rooke_Greenberg) was maybe the first documented child with simmilar condition, that seemed not to age. Unfortunately she has dies already (October 24, 2013) at the age of 10.

 

In 2009, Richard Walker and his team published a brief report describing her case. He got to the conclusion, that "Her development is continuing ... in a disorganised fashion." meaning, that Brooke’s organs and tissues were developing with different speeds.

He wanted also to make her full genome sequencing, but the Greeenbergs did not agree, and the genome sequencing was not made. Since she is now death, her genome will never be sequenced.

 

 

N2:

 

Gabby Williams

Walker has teamed up with geneticists at Duke University and screened Gabby's and her mother's exomes (the part of the DNA, which codes the genes) and reached to the conclusion, that Gabby's condition is not due to an exome mutation, which was quite strange, at least according to me. 

 

 

N3:

 

Is your Mackenzee Wittke.

 

 

 

 

Since all of the upper are females, it can be speculated, that for the condition of the girls is responsible the X - chromozome. In a Fight Aging article, the condition was referred as "Syndrome X", so maybe they are supporting that theory.  

https://www.fightagi...ce-to-aging.php

 

There was also a simmilar case of a boy, who seems, that does not age. And his condition appeared to be genetic

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=YUPZzJ6Pe64

 

 

 

There was also another case of a girl, who seemed not to age somewhere in the Latino - countries, ( http://www.youtube.c...h?v=0fjZi9aSHsM ) and the result from the doctor, who examined her, was, that she has not enough thyroid hormone (Cretenism). Further, that was confirmed and from more detailed exams.

 

 

 

In brief it can be said, that noone knows why the most - important from the group children are with this condition and noone can say with a certainity if this condition is related somehow with the aging or the development of some of the aging changes, or not.


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#6 VictorBjoerk

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 06:47 PM

I'm annoyed by all these media report about "non-aging" individuals, when in fact they are just not maturating.


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#7 Kalliste

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 06:49 PM

FYI she most likely does not hold the secret to aging. User Reason on this forum has dealt with this kind of journalistic nonsense on a number of occasions.



#8 corb

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 07:06 PM

We've already talked about this case before on the forum if I remember it correctly. Sometimes last year maybe?
It's a defect not unlike dwarfism but just more extreme. Nothing particularly interesting as far as aging mechanisms go, she'll probably live a very short lifespan considering she does seem to have complications as well.



#9 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 07:10 PM

At arround an year ago I actually started a topic about the children, who never seem to age :) I do not know if you mean my topic :D



#10 corb

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 08:09 PM

Yes I think that was probably the one. I tried finding it but it seems to be buried under a lot of other older threads so I just gave up on that.



#11 niner

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 08:32 PM

My first thought upon seeing this latest example of a developmental disorder being confused with "not aging" was "why in the hell didn't that idiot reporter talk to a scientist who understood the difference?"  Tragically, the reporter was misled by a retired biochem professor / crank who not only doesn't understand the difference himself but is even the Editor-in-Cheif of the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging.  Apparently he's been chasing cases like this, and thinks that he'll learn some magical secret of aging.  Sad. 

 

Brooke Greenberg, one of the other famous cases like this, recently died at the age of 20.  All of these kids have multiple health problems.


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#12 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 08:59 AM

Maybe you all are right, but we can't blame anyone for taking the wrong path for finding theimmortality.

 

Why?

 

Because noone today knows the right path.

 

Why doesn't he know it?

 

Because he has not produced an immortal human. When he produces one, he will say proudly: I know the right path to the immortality! You all the rest are cranks or whatever, because you have wasted your time in nonsences.



#13 niner

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 11:33 AM

Maybe you all are right, but we can't blame anyone for taking the wrong path for finding theimmortality.

 

Why?

 

Because noone today knows the right path.

 

Why doesn't he know it?

 

Because he has not produced an immortal human. When he produces one, he will say proudly: I know the right path to the immortality! You all the rest are cranks or whatever, because you have wasted your time in nonsences.

 

If the money available for aging research was infinite, and if he wasn't subjecting these girls (all of the 7 or 8 known cases are female, interestingly)  to interventions that might cause them  distress, then I'd say fine, let everyone follow whatever path they want.  But research money is hard to find and should be used wisely.  Brooke Greenberg's family reportedly broke off all communications with the guy, so he must have been causing a problem there.

 

You don't have to produce an immortal human to have a reasonably good understanding of what aging is (and isn't).



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#14 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 01:35 PM

"If the money available for aging research was infinite, "

 

The man has collected alone these money and has dedicated them for the research. You collect yours, and dedicate them to whatever research you think is not stupid.

 

"and if he wasn't subjecting these girls (all of the 7 or 8 known cases are female, interestingly)"

 

Actually there was and one subjected boy.

 

"to interventions that might cause them distress, "

 

It is not you who to determine what can or can not cause them distress. This responsibility for the individuals in a helpless condition, according to the law in the majority of the countries, including USA is given to their legal guardians. They can agree or disagree exams to be made and participation in a research to be done. If you ask me, on the clip they didn't looked like in a distress.

 

"then I'd say fine, let everyone follow whatever path they want. "

 

Saying it or not, it doesn't matter. We are living in a free world, right? They follow it even if you do not say them to.

 

"But research money is hard to find and should be used wisely. "

 

As I wrote before, in the terms of immortality, noone can say what is whisely and what is not, not even you. This is so, because so far noone can prove definatively whatever connected with the immortality.

 

"Brooke Greenberg's family reportedly broke off all communications with the guy, so he must have been causing a problem there."

 

For the reason why they didn't allow further exams of their child, the Greenberg's "refused to say". So, it is only your not proven theory that the guy must have been causing a problem.

 

"You don't have to produce an immortal human to have a reasonably good understanding of what aging is (and isn't)."

 

This is highly discutable and as general wrong.


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