Chronic stress shortens the life of immune cells in a human body. The best way to avoid the problem is to overlook or ignore the issues that are no more significant than flea-bites
WHAT’S there to be coy about? Are we not (over-the-hill types) forever sniffing around for a lifetime warranty on how to stave off age?
We work the treadmill; we log miles on the walking trail; we aspire to be health foodies; we garage our weary carriage during the 24/7 grind and steal forty winks whenever we can; we camouflage our grey with hair dyes; we get facials that lift our faces; we use anti-age creams ... the search for the ageless font, my friends, is ours forever.
Well, I have news for you. Actually, it’s your DNA that needs special handling more than your body and face. The chromosomes in you hold the highest stake against the war of aging. Those mystery cells that contain bodies of viruses, hormones, organisms and genes that are so very hard to fathom. They are at the wheel and can take you downhill — 10 to 17 years — if you don’t keep a tight rein on them.
How does one control one’s chromosomes? You may well wonder.
The single word is stress. Strangle the stress stimuli and the kingdom is yours.
Hot off the press and still sizzling is the revelation that stress can pile up premature decades on your life. So put aside your boutique vitamins and plastic surgeons and run to the nearest head shrink or better still curl up in yoga posture and bring on those moments of Zen to relax.
Remember the first line of defence against stress is your immune system. However, it’s no match against mental battering that can break down the nervous system and leave you vulnerable.
Pintsize and pretty, with an interesting bony structure and raven dark hair falling arrow straight on her narrow shoulders, Elissa Epel, PhD, talks passionately about a subject she has pummelled, arriving at the root of the cells, that piece of protein in our DNA, that will shrivel and not rejuvenate if attacked by severe emotional distress. For example, traumatic events like divorce, getting fired, a death in the family or tending an ill child or parent.
“Chronic stress appears to have the potential to shorten the life of immune cells. People who are stressed over long periods tend to look haggard, and it is commonly thought that psychological stress leads to premature aging and other diseases of aging,” says Epel.
Now, wait a minute. Didn’t we all know that severe mental stress causes a breakdown in our immune system and opens up a Pandora’s box brimming with diseases from a common cold to a stiff back and even cancer?
But here’s what Epel, professor of psychiatry at the University of California’s reveals in her study, simplified for lay people like us. She talks about telomeres (let’s befriend these fellas) as caps that cover the ends of our chromosomes, protecting them for genetic stability. However, these chaps continue to shorten when our cells divide in due process of our chronological clocks ticking away.
Her research provides the clearest evidence yet “of the price in wear and tear on the tissues that everybody pays during a stressful life”.
More importantly, she tells us that telomeres hate stress and eventually ditch us, leaving the chromosomes unprotected and unguarded, thus precipitating aging by making our biological clocks to race ahead furiously.
“In young people, an enzyme called telomerase (alas, it’s too late for the oldies to get chummy with this variety) corrects the process, regenerating the ends. However, in older people the telomeres shorten significantly and eventually their replication stops altogether,” reiterates Epel.
That’s terrible! We have to hang on to telomeres at whatever it costs. Let’s see ... how about de-stressing our daily life, for starters. Not in America, buddy. The day begins with the biggest challenge of all: reaching the place of work on time. As you hit the highway, oh no, there’s an accident and one lane is closed down, which means everybody must crawl instead of cruise to work. Delay, delay, delay.
I am amazed at the patience of people behind the wheel. Stoic, they alternate their right foot between jamming the brakes and hitting the accelerator (the left foot in American cars is rendered useless and has to look for ways to entertain itself on these endlessly long drives).
Swamped at work and at home, with barely a moment to breathe; to save time you munch while you drive and talk on your cell, nerves everywhere are frazzled most of the time, not surprising then that people in their twenties start frequenting cosmetic surgeons for facelifts.
Epel’s findings are the first to link psychological stress so directly to biological age, declares the New York Times, which carried an in-depth story on her recently.
“When people are under stress, they look haggard, it’s like they age before your eyes, and here’s something going on at a molecular level,” asserts Epel’s research team, especially focusing on women.
They found that blood cells from women who had spent many years caring for a disabled child were, genetically, about a decade older than those from peers leading normal lives.
Epel and her mates are now testing women on meditation, mindfulness training and yoga to compare their telomeres’ length. Cognitive therapy where people learn to balance their responses to stress may be a handy tool. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) combines two kinds of psychotherapy — cognitive and behaviour.
According to a CBT expert, behaviour therapy helps you “weaken the connections between troublesome situations and your habitual reactions to them. Reactions such as fear, depression or rage, and self-defeating or self-damaging behaviour. It also teaches you how to calm your mind and body, so you can feel better, think more clearly, and make better decisions.”
Cognitive therapy, he says, teaches you “how certain thinking patterns are causing your symptoms — by giving you a distorted picture of what’s going on in your life, and making you feel anxious, depressed or angry for no good reason, or provoking you into ill-chosen actions.”
Experts, however, contend that it is far from clear exactly how fretting over a child’s disability can cause a parent’s telomeres to shorten before their time. Although researchers know that emotional strain of this kind prompts the release of stress hormones, like cortisol, which over time can damage cells, no one knows how these hormones or other stress-related toxins affect telomeres.
“While psychological stress seems to cause telomere shortening and cell aging, it’s possible that some people are less vulnerable to [chronic] stress — and, therefore, have longer telomeres,” says Epel.
Want longer telomeres? Then don’t sweat the small stuff.
Chronic stress shortens the life of immune cells in a human body. The best way to avoid the problem is to overlook or ignore the issues that are no more significant than flea-bites 
