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Monday, November 29, 2004Scientists have identified the first direct link between stress and aging, a finding that could explain why intense, long-term emotional strain can make people get sick and grow old before their time. Chronic stress appears to hasten the shriveling of the tips of the bundles of genes inside cells, which shortens their life span and speeds the body's deterioration, according to a small, first-of-its-kind study involving mothers caring for chronically ill children. If the findings are confirmed, they could provide the first explanation on a cellular level for the well-documented association between psychological stress and increased risk of physical disease, as well as the common perception that unrelenting emotional pressure accelerates the aging process. The article doesn't say if the study controlled for such factors as sleep deprivation, which could certainly play a role in the physical effects of stress on the body. It's during sleep that our bodies repair and rejuvinate themselves, and mothers with chronically ill children would certainly be expected to get less sleep on average than mothers with healthy children. posted by Sydney on 11/29/2004 10:57:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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