It is really interesting that her telomeres are shortening at a normal rate. Most scientists think that is the root cause of aging at a cellular level. Walker et al. 2009
I find the telomere hypothesis to be a bit silly. There isn't a thing (molecular biologically speaking) that causes aging. There is, however, entropy. Organisms are far too ordered to stayed sable for a long period of time. My guess is that the degradation of organisms is general and protracted, and not due to one or several molecular processes.
I'm not saying that telomeres are the only thing that cause aging. But there is an important association between cellular degradation and reduction of telomeres. I'm just surprised that hers are shortening at a normal rate, I would have expected some deviation from the normal rate. I agree with your point re: entropy.
Yeah! I couldn't believe that part. It throws out the window one of the strongest pieces of evidence for aging we knew about!