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."

Comments

I wonder...

[alexjohns]

I wonder if this is the root cause of depravity among the ruling class. Our elected leaders usually only last 4-6 years. But those kings of old that ruled for decades, maybe the body realized it was under stress and looked for outlets that relieved that stress.

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 the managing of stress

[Staplerh]

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?

Re:Stress the managing of stress

[nomel]

I wonder if caffeine accelerates aging since it puts the body in the same state as if it were in stress.

So....

[tansey]

Does this mean IT people will start getting hazard pay?

I knew I wasn't crazy

[Oriumpor]

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

But "psychological stress" is crap...

[CodeWanker]

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.