Telomere Research Offers Insight on Stress–Disease Link

Extract

A spate of recent mind–body research studies that could prove important to cancer patients suggest that counseling and exercise can undo some of the changes wrought by stress at the cellular level.

Scientists have known for two decades that telomeres—stretches of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes and, thus, the integrity of the genome—shorten with aging. More recently, evidence has mounted that shorter telomeres are associated with shorter lives and with an array of diseases, including cardiovascular disease and several cancers. Studies have also associated smoking, high body mass index, depression, and physical inactivity with diminished telomere length.

In 2004, Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., the University of California, San Francisco, biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for her work with telomeres, and her colleagues first demonstrated, in healthy pre-menopausal women, that psychological stress can also shorten telomeres. Now, researchers have taken it one step further, showing that interventions to reduce stress and improve quality of life can rejuvenate those stubby telomeres.