Monday, July 31, 2017

You'll age quicker if your parents had bipolar disorder: Cells shrink and break quicker in those with a family history of the mental illness

Bipolar disorder in parents is linked to faster ageing in relatives. The study was conducted by King's College London researches with help from a team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Healthy relatives of those suffering from bipolar disease had shorter telomeres. Telomeres shorten each time a cell divides. They shorten till they are totally degraded and cells are no longer able to divide. The findings also showed promise for the main drug used to treat bipolar disease. Bipolar patients treated with lithium have been discovered to have longer telomeres compared to those on other drugs providing hope for patients who suffer from the disease



2 comments:

  1. It is amazing that lithium helps these individuals, it is also so sad that those affected with an already horrible mental illness also age quicker and have shorter lifespans.

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  2. It's very interesting how patients treated with lithium have longer telomeres. I wonder what adverse side effects it may cause by being treated by lithium.

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