Slashdot Mirror
Stress Found to Accelerate Chromosome Aging
th3d0ct0r writes "Various sources report that according to the findings of a science team led by Elissa Epel at the University of California, SF, stress can cause accelerated aging of cells. The mecanism seems to be linked to oxidative stress at cellular level, that keeps the enzyme telomerase from regenerating the chromosomial telomere caps which shorten a bit during each replication cycle. Telomere caps are known to be a very important factor determining the replication capacity of every cell. Once these caps are gone,a cell goes to a state of senescence, and ultimately dies. People exposed to prolonged periods of stress have been shown to have significantly shorter telomere caps on the chromosomes of their white blood cells."
Could explain all that debauchery and inbreeding and stuff. Or maybe it's just because they had absolute power and could do whatever they wanted with impugnity. I bet a good defense lawyer could use it in court.
"I submit that my client, Caligula, committed these atrocities as stress relief. He didn't really want to do all these things the prosecution alleges. His body was just looking to alleviate all the stress he's been under in running the Roman empire. He's a victim of stress, nothing more. A good man with too much pressure on him."
It could happen.
Obquote: "It's good to be the king."
stress can cause accelerated aging of cells.
Aha!
When I said doing those dumbass Java Server Pages and pretending that was real OOP was killing me, I had no idea how literal I was being.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Further evidence that stress has real, actual impact on the human body and that stress management programmes should be accorded respect. I don't know any statistics on the subject, but for every workplace that has a stress programme there are certainly many that do not.
Just as asbestos is a workplace hazard, stress should be considered in the similar vein. While people may chuckle at the mental image of a bunch of cubicle workers doing tai-chi or some other stress exercise, it may be the right move to deal with a signifigant health hazard.
Perhaps somebody should do a study of those EA workers and if their health was impacted by the long periods of stressful work?
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
Does this mean IT people will start getting hazard pay?
Stress has as much to do with psychology as your environment. Stress is created by your brain - the threshold of what you perceive as stressful and what I perceive as stressful are likely totally different, as I am a pretty easy-going guy. Some people just flip out over nothing, others can smile and laugh while their world comes crashing down upon them. And you can do tai-chi till you're blue in the face and it won't change any of that, all it will result in is the people who can't cope with their situations properly will be wasting their whole days doing tiger-crane.
What *really* should be happening is that people who are likely to be put into high-stress situations should be screened beforehand to avoid breakdowns and other health problems.
The military can do it, why not the private sector? Sure, there would likely be legal challenges at first under equal rights, but really, I don't see what the difference is between a programming company giving a psyche profile and an insurance company asking you to fill out a health form.
I am curious what how this relates to the effect of stress on the immune system.
Is the immune system weakened somehow by this?
Are a weakened immune system and this shortening of the telomeres both symptoms of another problem?
Are the telomeres shortened in these white blood cells because the immune system has been running it's self to rags due to stress?
Or is the fact they found this shortening in white blood cells a red herring?
Then again, this was a study of 58 women. Not a very large sample, and I'm male - so I'm safe.
(I always was jealous of my sisters as a child. I found it unfair that sharks were man-eaters.)
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
Only in Korea.
I mean, at some level, don't you as a thinking human, start stressing out about something? Aren't we all at a basic level stressed that we don't have enough to eat, that we won't have a place to live and that we won't pass along our genes to future generations?
Or are they referring to "Modern Stress" - something that only afflicts the "Modern World"?
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
To study the effect of stress on the cell, Epel and her colleagues looked at the chromosomes in the white blood cells of 58 mothers, two-thirds of whom had chronically ill children. The other women had healthy children so may be expected to suffer less stress.
Perhaps they have merely discovered that people with shortened telomeres are more likely to have chronically ill children.
I'm 32 going on 50!
-psy
Forgive me, but my biology is failing me...
Does the state of one's telomeres at the time they conceive a child have any effect on the state of a child's telomeres at birth? Or do children start with a clean slate in that regard?
That Cannabis will lengthen one's lifespan? Hmmmmmm....
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
"I submit that my client, Caligula, committed these atrocities as stress relief. He didn't really want to do all these things the prosecution alleges. His body was just looking to alleviate all the stress he's been under in running the Roman empire. He's a victim of stress, nothing more. A good man with too much pressure on him."
Result:
Caligula goes free. He orders the lawyer to commit suicide. The lawyer draws a hot bath, drinks a cup of wine, opens his veins. Caligula feels much better afterward: "Why, that must have added a year to my life!"
-kgj
-kgj
I remember seeing Clinton before he was elected, and then pictures of him at the end of his term. He got old FAST.
1992
2000
because all the impacts they should measure are physiological. They ought to measure the relative frequency that the fight or flight response gets triggered without a satisfactory response (the body can neither fight nor flee,) the average amount of sleep, the average amount of aerobic exercise, the relative frequency of overeating and drinking to self-medicate a negative emotional state, and other things we can quantify. "Sick kids worry parents to death" is not a scientific premise or conclusion. And I speak as a parent who would worry himself to death if his daughter had a serious illness.
"Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
Then...beer saves lives?
Quack, quack.
I just don't even to have the time to stress ...
insert witty comment here
... we've just found scientific proof that stress will kill you faster! That's it, I'm off to the Bahamas.
The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!
It says oxidative stress, which is put on by oxidation. Anti-oxidants are very high on the list of stuff that is good for you, very prominent are metformin, turmeric and the tannins in tea. Actually it seems lots of vegetables contain anti-oxidants.
Stress also has effects on the immune system, but that is an issue in general unrelated to this article about the telomers. But of course, everything is connected to everything, two.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Maybe there is another reason:
I heard one whale was saved by recycling all the make-up that the president used during his campaign.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
The "work smarter" thing has a lot of truth to it. I used to work like crazy to get nothing done. These days I work less, but on problems that are vastly more interesting, which hopefully will benefit my career, and I'm more productive than I ever was before, since I focus on what I put out of my work, and not what I put in. The other thing is thinking long term. I figure an academic career spans decades, and you have to pace yourself so you don't get burned out.
The military doe snot screen general enlistments for stress sensitivity very much.
But they sure as hell do for special ops people. You don't want a Seal who is going to be out of radio contact for 14 days to fail his mission and be killed because he got "stressed out".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
here we have proof that getting stressed ages you.
and here we have proof that pain ages your brain.
and here we have proof that a drink or two keeps you alive longer
and even sites that aim to scare you into Tea-total abstinance admit that "...Alcohol ís a depressant. Many people use alcohol as a means to produce feelings of relaxation..."
Uh...um.....I forgot where I was going with all this....I need a drink. Being a 90 year old wino has its drawbacks but I can never remember what they are.
There must be good stress and bad stress because strenuous exercise on a regular basis churns up a lot of free radicals that are supposed to do the same things to you as the telomere damage cited in the art. but instead that is "exercise" and it does you good. Until somebody makes sense out of that littel dicotomy, I am not paying too much attention to these reports. a good Port is better than a good report?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Reread the article, heck reread the summary.
The study is about stress - and they are guessing that the mech. of damage is oxidative stress. The parent to your post asked a very good and valid question - and you showed little but ignorance in your reply.