DSRF Note:
People with Down's syndrome are described as having accelerated aging and they do have a reduced life span.

We believe this "accelerated aging" is due to the extra genes disrupting the way that the body works and this results in increased cell damage. It should be possible to develop a treatment therapy to prevent this damage and this would improve the outcome for children and adults who have those extra (Trisomy 21) genes. Antioxidant therapies have this potential but knowing the exact formulation requires expensive research projects.

Parents should support the DSRF if they want this research to get underway. We are the only UK charity with this commitment and research will cost at least £1 million. We need lots of parents who can help us with fundraising projects. (Hard work, but not if a lot of people will offer to help).

Click here to join the DSRF and offer to help

Click here to send us a message >>dsrf@dsrf.co.uk

Click here to read about aging in Down syndrome

In Down syndrome a gene that predisposes to Alzheimer's is located in chromosome 21 so there are three copies instead of the usual two copies. 40% of people with DS will get Alzheimer's before age 60 (about 8x higher frequency than the general population).

The following article describes the latest theories on the aging process and it discusses the cell damage theory which is more of an issue in Down syndrome but Down syndrome is not discussed in this article.

This article is discusses increasing the human life span, with reference to the longest known life span of 122 years. In theory we each have the ability to live past age 100. Most of us will die because of some illness or disease process or because we have worn out our body.

Modern medicine has greatly improved our ability to survive illness and disease and this is why we can now live to age 70. Latest projections are that today's young people will live to age 80. To live longer than this we also have to find ways to reverse the damage caused to the body by disease and illness.

All of this is even more important when you have Down syndrome, where there is increased incidence of many health problems a degenerative disease process that is usually ignored and genes that predispose towards (but do not cause) these problems.

Click here to view the article printed in New Scientist >>