14 DAY TRIAL // According to the conclusions of a new scientific study, it would appear that stress is capable of affecting even the fabric your cells are made up of, leading to an acceleration of the aging process.
The usual, more visible effects of stress have been under investigation for a long time. These include everything from chest palpitations and muscle spasms to headaches, anxiety, and depression.
However, few researchers have focused on the hidden effects that stress has on the cellular level. Quantifying these influences has proven to be very difficult, due to the issues associated with identifying where the effects of stress stop, and others begin.
In the new investigation, which was led by Umeå University professor Rolf Adolfsson, researchers including PhD student Mikael Wikgren focused on the effects of stress on the length of telomeres.
These are protective DNA caps located at the end of chromosomes, which play a role in ensuring that genetic information is transmitted correctly during duplication. In time, telomere fragments are lost, eventually leading to cellular decay.
These structures are currently under investigation because they may provide scientists with a way of delaying aging. What the team was particularly interested in in this investigation was determining how stress attacks telomere, quickening the pace at which they naturally shorten, PsychCentral reports.
Past investigations have suggested that depression and stress alike influence telomere length. The team studied telomere degradation by putting it in relation to the actions of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a control system regulating the body's response to external stressors.
Researchers know that people suffering from stress-related disorders and depression exhibit abnormal activation patterns in the HPA axis. In the latest study, investigators measured telomere length in individuals suffering from major depressive disorder, as well as in healthy people.
Results revealed that the average length of telomeres was shorter in people who were depressed. In addition, the team also determined that test subjects displaying low cortisol levels were more likely to exhibit shorter telomeres, regardless of whether they were depressed or not.
“Our findings suggest that stress plays an important role in depression, as telomere length was especially shortened in patients exhibiting an overly sensitive HPA axis. This HPA axis response is something which has been linked to chronic stress and with poor ability to cope with stress,” Wikgren explains.
“The link between stress and telomere shortening is growing stronger. The current findings suggest that cortisol levels may be a contributor to this process, but it is not yet clear whether telomere length has significance beyond that of a biomarker,” adds Dr. John Krystal.
He is the editor of Biological Psychiatry, the scientific journal that published the new investigation.