Evidence Stress Accelerates Aging by Shortening Telomeres

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

This looks really significant as regards the effects of stress:

" Epel's study appears in the latest issue of Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences.

In it, Epel and her colleagues examine one sign of biological aging --

tiny segments of DNA and protein, called telomeres, that cap the

ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, a portion of this DNA

erodes. After many cell divisions, so much DNA is missing - and the

telomeres are so short -- that the aged cell stops dividing, she

explains.

As cells age, they produce less and less telomerase, an enzyme that

adds DNA onto the telomeres. Both telomere length and telomerase

levels can therefore indicate a cell's " age, " she writes. That's when

risk of disease increases.

" The results were striking, " says co-author Blackburn, PhD,

professor of biology and physiology at UCSF, in a news release. " This

is the first evidence that chronic stress - and how a person

perceives stress - may damp down telomerase and have a significant

impact on the length of telomeres ... [causing] cellular aging. " "

Rodney.