Early Aging Tied to Chronic Stress : Study Finds Evidence Mind is Connected to Changes in Body - SFGate

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Early aging tied to chronic stress / Study finds evidence mind isconnected to changes in bodyDavid Perlman, Chronicle Science EditorPublished 4:00 am, Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Researchers at UC San Francisco say theyhave found the first direct evidence that severeand chronic emotional stress can agepeople biologically.

Everyone knows that stress is tough, andprolonged stress can be even worse -- it candisrupt the human immune system, increasethe risk of heart disease and take its toll on the

body in many other ways. Now the scientists think they know why: Stress, or theperception of stress, can alter key genetic molecules in a cell.

In a controlled experiment involving mothers caring for chronically ill children, a teamfrom UCSF and other research centers found that mothers who perceived that they wereunder persistent psychological stress aged by the equivalent of a full decade -- their cellswere damaged and even killed by their own perceptions of stress.

The scientists focused on key protein molecules in the body's cells called telomeres thatcap the ends of chromosomes and on an enzyme called telomerase that controls the lengthof those telomeres.

Every time cells divide normally, their telomeres shorten, and when the telomeres havedwindled away completely, the cells die. The telomerase enzyme, in turn, can boost thelength of the telomeres and thus keep cells dividing indefinitely.

The gradual shortening of telomeres as cells divide serves as a kind of time-clock thatmeasures the biological age of the body's cells.

Leaders of the research team are UCSF's Elizabeth Blackburn, a microbiologist who isfamed for her discoveries of telomere activity, and Elissa Epel, an assistant professor of

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"Everybody's trying to figure out what causes aging and premature aging, " DennisNovack, who studies emotion and health at Drexel University School of Medicine, told theWashington Post. "We all know that stress seems to age people -- just look at the aging ofour presidents after four years."

The new study "demonstrated that there is no such thing as a separation of mind and body-- the very molecules in our bodies are responsive to our psychological environment,"Novack said.

In their long-term experiment, Blackburn and Epel compared two groups: one made up of39 mothers who had to care for their children suffering from such disorders as autism andcerebral palsy, the other of 19 mothers who were caring for normal, healthy children.

The mothers of the chronically ill children "were subjected to the kind of grinding,day-to-day bad stress that can wear anyone down," Blackburn said in an interview, "andthe longer their stress continued, the more it appeared that they aged biologically."

Analysis of the telomeres on the chromosomes of their white blood cells showed that thosetiny proteins shortened measurably as the mothers felt the continued stress of caring fortheir severely sick children, the scientists found. Some mothers with sick children,however, did not report feeling stressed, and their telomeres did not shorten, thescientists found.

Dr. Richard Cawthorn, a geneticist at the University of Utah, was responsible formeasuring the telomeres and the enzyme's activity in all the mothers.

"We weren't at all sure of what we'd find," Blackburn said, "but we could let the numbersspeak to us, and they've given us a pretty tantalizing hint of the physical link betweenlong-term psychological stress and biological aging."

Cawthorn's numbers showed that telomerase activity diminished most strikingly in themothers whose care for their severely ill children was unremitting for long periods of time-- with the result that their telomeres shortened and their cells aged. Follow-up researchmay also find that their susceptibility to diseases of the heart and immunesystem increases.

"The research so far gives us a dramatic example of the mind-body link in a basic,fundamental way," Epel said.

One of the next areas Epel would like to research is how techniques designed to easelong-term psychological stress affect the body's cells. Activities such as yoga, meditation orbehavioral therapy, she said, might increase telomerase activity and slow the rate oftelomere shortening.

"The findings emphasize the importance of managing life stress, to take it seriously if onefeels stressed, to give your body a break and make life changes that promote well-being,"Epel said.

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