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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."
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.
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.