Stress May Promote Aging of Cells
(NY, Reuters Health,11/29/04)

Dr. Elissa S. Epel and Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, both of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues, investigated the theory that psychological stress accelerates aging by causing telomeres to shorten. Telomeres, the caps at the ends of white blood cell chromosomes, shorten with each cell replication until the cells can no longer divide. The researchers used a standard questionnaire to assess stress and a blood test to compare telomere length in 39 women who were primary caregivers for a chronically ill child to that of 19 mothers of healthy children. The investigators found that the longer a woman had been a caregiver, the shorter the length of telomeres. These findings highlight the connection between stress and premature aging. Since telomeres typically shorten by about 31 to 63 units per year, scientists speculate that the 550-unit shortening they witnessed in the high-stress group may mean 9 to 17 years of additional aging.

(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 29, 2004)