Feeling a little
STRESSED
lately?
Common sense tells you that people under stress age faster, doesn't
it? We know stressed-out people LOOK older. They look haggard. Their
posture changes. Who knows what else?
Well, today I'll tell you what else.
You'll want to listen up, because now
science has proof of what we've suspected all along.1
A group of scientists decided it was time to figure out how stress
gets "under the skin" (as they put it). To do that, they isolated a
small piece of DNA protein known as the telomere.
Stay with me for just a moment as I explain, as I understand it, the
function of the telomere in maintaining your health. The telomere is
responsible for keeping chromosomes stable as they divide during
normal cellular metabolism. Each time a chromosome divides, a little
tiny bit of its telomere drops off. Because of this quality, the
telomere is a good marker for a cell's biological (versus
chronological) "age."
We all know that certain diseases are more common in older people than
in younger ones. One of the reasons for that has to do with the "age"
of the tissues involved. And that is determined, at least in part, by
the condition of your telomeres.
Both the telomere itself and its related enzyme (telomerase, which
protects telomere length) are affected by the cellular environment.
Specifically, they're affected by oxidative stress. (The same kind of
oxidative stress that anti-oxidant nutrients relieve.) Oxidative
stress is related to psychological stress.
The scientists set up an experiment to test their theory that chronic
psychological stress would lead to shortening of the telomeres,
accelerating the body's aging process.
They gathered a group of 58 women between 20 and 50 years of age and
asked them to fill out a questionnaire on perceived stress. Each of
the women had at least one child at home. To make things more
interesting, 39 of them were the parent of a chronically ill child -
these women were identified with the term "caregivers." (The
researchers figured this factor would increase their stress!)
After controlling for factors like age and use of oral contraceptives,
they found some very interesting results.
-
Within the caregiving group, the more years of caregiving, the
shorter the telomere length.
-
Across both groups, women who reported higher levels of perceived
stress had shorter telomeres. Perceived stress turned out to be a more
reliable factor than their inclusion in the "caregiving" or "non-caregiving"
group.
-
The women who reported higher perceived stress also had
significantly higher Body Mass Indicator scores (they were more
overweight).
-
By examining the amount of shortening in the telomeres, the
scientists were able to estimate that the lymphocytes (part of the
immune system) of the highest-stress group had aged prematurely by the
equivalent of 9 - 17 years compared with the lowest-stress group.
-
Chronic or perceived psychological stress affected cellular aging in
at least 3 different ways: immune cell function, oxidative stress, and
activity of the enzyme telomerase.
While the scientists realize there is more exploration to be done,
these findings are really significant!
Let me draw your attention to one obvious fact. Perceived stress was a
more damaging factor than the objective measure (caregiving a
chronically ill child) that the researchers had initially set up. That
means that some members of the caregiver group who managed stress
particularly well were not so adversely affected by their situations
as less-effective stress managers in the control group.
As the scientists report, "Women with the highest levels of perceived
stress have telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least
one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women. These
findings have implications for understanding how, at the cellular
level, stress may promote earlier onset of age-related diseases."
What does this say for you and me? Become an effective stress manager!
I don't know about you, but I'd like to stick around healthy for
another decade if I have the chance!
One tool you'll want to check out is my
Ultimate Stress-Buster Kit. It'll help you get a handle on stress
– that's a given.
And if you should come up with a whole lot of great ideas to turn your
life around while you're at it, well, let's just say I gave you fair
warning!
Your Stick-To-It Coach,
Elizabeth Eckert
1 Epel, E., Blackburn, E., Lin, J., et al. "Accelerated telomere
shortening in response to life stress." PNAS December 7, 2004, vol
101, no. 49, pp. 17312-17315. http://www.pnas.org.
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