Telomere and Stress: A New Biological Super-Indicator
By Aneel Chima & Art DeLorenzo
A telomere may, in fact, be the most important biological indicator of which you’ve never heard of, or heard very little of. If by chance you have seen the National Geographic Video “Stress: Portrait of a Killer”, you would have found two of the world’s leading experts discuss their research into this unknown phenomena. And, as usual, stress seems to be right in the middle of their story. To learn more we recently traveled to the University of California at San Francisco to meet with these leading researchers on telomeres and stress, 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine Laureate Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and her colleague Dr. Elissa Epel. In short, here’s what they found out. Inside the nucleus of cells in our bodies are chromosomes that house and protect genetic information. At the tip of each of these chromosomes, comprised of repeating DNA, is a protective cap called a telomere. These tiny telomeres have become huge topics within the research of aging and stress. “Telomere length is increasingly considered a biological marker of the accumulated wear and tear of living, integrating genetic influences, lifestyle behaviors and stress,” says Dr. Epel. In effect, chronic stress seems to shorten the lifespan of our cells and this is shown in the shortening length of the telemeter, which serves as a biological clock, of sorts. The good news: exercise, stress management, and other lifestyle interventions seem to stave off telomere deterioration. We hope to have more to share with you on this exciting topic in following installments of the newsletter.
For those of you who may have missed it, on Monday evening, January 31st, ABC’s Diane Sawyer started a week long segment on aging. Her topic to start the week was the stress that children of aging parents were experiencing. Researchers estimate that as many as 10 years can be deducted to the life span of these folks if a protracted period of time is spent in this care-giving mode. These children see their responsibility rather clearly but they are short on the knowledge as to how to mitigate this physiological damage. Sadly, there was no reference to the antidotes of exercise, deep belly breathing, positive mental imaging, that we now know are balancing agents to this dilemma.
February 2011