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Biotech Science

Stress Found to Accelerate Chromosome Aging 43

Posted by michael from the hakuna-matata dept.
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."
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Stress Found to Accelerate Chromosome Aging More

Stress Found to Accelerate Chromosome Aging

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  • I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by alexjohns ( 53323 )
    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,

    • Ha! Frist post! It's probably been 5 years since my last one. Heh.
    • "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: "
  • 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.
  • 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
    • 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 situation
      • The military can do it, why not the private sector?

        Yeah right! That would be why over a hundred thousand veterans of Gulf War I are registered as suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. Or maybe that's why Vietnam vets have such a pristine record regarding murders, suicides and mental illness. Come to think of it, many WWII vets came home with what was called at the time "shell shock." I knew a man like that once. We called him "Tarz" short for Tarzan. He wandered the streets of the small town where I gre
        • 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".


          • The military doe snot screen general...

            Let me get this straight: the military has a general that is in charge "doe snot screening"? Or do they have a general in charge of something called a "doe snot screen?" What in the world would they use a screen like that for, and why must they put a general in charge of it? It must be a new secret weapon.

      • Everybody is sensitive to stress, you just may deal with it differently. Just as some people react differently to a painfull stimulus.
        You may not show that you are stressed, or maybe not consciously perceive it that way, but subconsciously it can very well have a strong impact.
        Just think of all the bruxers in the US!
    • I wonder if caffeine accelerates aging since it puts the body in the same state as if it were in stress.

  • So.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tansey ( 238786 )
    Does this mean IT people will start getting hazard pay?

  • I am curious (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Murphy Murph ( 833008 ) <sealab.murphy@gmail.com> on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @06:09PM (#10957963) Journal
    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.)
    • 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.

  • Can you really minimize stress (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Drunken_Jackass ( 325938 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @06:28PM (#10958186) Homepage
    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"?

    • I mean, at some level, don't you as a thinking human, start stressing out about something?

      I suspect they mean "Modern Stress". Unlike the first ones you cite, modern stress focuses on things we tend to feel powerless to do anything about.

  • Correlation/Causation (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    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....

  • I knew I wasn't crazy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Oriumpor ( 446718 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @09:47PM (#10959735) Homepage Journal
    I remember seeing Clinton before he was elected, and then pictures of him at the end of his term. He got old FAST.

    1992 [timeinc.net]
    2000 [cnn.net]

  • 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

  • Beer. (Score:2)

    by msimm ( 580077 )
    Then...beer saves lives?
  • ... we've just found scientific proof that stress will kill you faster! That's it, I'm off to the Bahamas.
  • I can think of a couple 30- year old PhD students I knew who had hair streaked through with silver. Personally, I make an effort to enjoy video games, drinking, travel, and a romantic life... but most of all, my studies. Doing stuff that interests me (instead of dreadful stuff that I think other people might like) has made work seem like play again. Plus, I play a lot when I should be working (and vice versa). I figure I ought to enjoy it- if I'm going to be miserable doing work I should head to Wall Street

  • "There was no difference in the telomere length of the two groups, but women in both groups who reported the most stress also had the shortest telomeres."

    My hypothosis[sic] didn't work out, so I will "mine" the data and look for another relationship. I think if they found anything at all it was this...

    "People with the shortest telomeres report the most stress regardless of the amount of perceived stress by others"

    ... they do kinda say that further down in the article. What they don't say is that the m

  • here we have proof that getting stressed ages you.
    and here [webmd.com]we have proof that pain ages your brain.
    and here [beekmanwine.com] we have proof that a drink or two keeps you alive longer
    and even sites that aim to scare you into Tea-total abstinance [open-mind.org] 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.
    Th

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