Too Much Stress May Give Genes Gray Hair

[HuckleB]

Too Much Stress May Give Genes Gray Hair

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/health/30age.html

"...Now a team of researchers has found that severe emotional distress - like that caused by divorce, the loss of a job, or caring for an ill child or parent - may speed up the aging of the body's cells at the genetic level.

The findings, being reported today, are the first to link psychological stress so directly to biological age.

The researchers 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 who had much less caretaking experience. The study, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also suggests that the perception of being stressed can add years to a person's biological age.

Though doctors have linked chronic psychological stress to weakened immune function and an increased risk of catching colds, among other things, they are still trying to understand how tension damages or weakens tissue.

The new research suggests a new way that such damage may occur and opens the possibility that the process can be reversed.

..."


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I suppose this is why I can feel myself aging when I'm feeling stressed out...

:)

[juliagoolia]

1. Well that explains it

Damn..

I raised a mentally ill violent child.. That is stressful.
No wonder I feel older than my sib who is only 2 years younger.

[HuckleB]

3. Yes.

My wife and I were just dicussing this aspect of this research. I have spent most of my adult life working with children living with developmental disabilities and mental illness, and I have seen the toll faced by their parents. This research certainly shows that for what it is, and, in my mind, it justifies the need for increased respite and other support services for these families.

Best to you.

[HCeline69]

2. Interesting

By coincidence, I am reading "The Mind and the Brain" by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley. There seems to be scientific evidence now that the state(s) of the the mind can physically change the structure of the brain. Food for thought...

[HuckleB]

4. Most certainly.

Go back to school as an adult, taking classes where you must memorize massive amounts of material, after years of not having to do so. The first term will be a struggle, but by the second term your brain will have "adjusted," and memorization will not take as long, and you'll actually have to spend less time studying. What's more, you could track the changes that lead to this "renewed ability" through brain scans.

[aquart]

5. Emotions are chemical. They cause chemical reactions.

What did people think feeling was made of? Fairy dust?

[mmonk]

6. So that's my problem.

2 kids in special schools. Now one of them is a young adult and we're going to have the repubs redo society. No wonder my wife and I are gray (she colors her hair).

[anarchy1999]

7. I can testify.

It is real. Stress can do amazing things to your health and well being. At the moment the stress was greatest I started going silver (I prefer silver, to grey). The gentleman that does my hair always said he'd tell me when I had to do something and he did. It was when stress in my life was at an all time high. I was going "silver" overnight.

[shrike]

12. my grandmother went silver "overnight"

It was 1929, the year of the stock market crash. She was the mother of five sons and her husband, an attorney, suffered a debilitating stroke and would never walk, or work, again. They lost everything. Her hair "turned white," as she put it, and she was in her early 40s.

[dummy-du1]

8. This confirms

what Dr. Bezruchka has observed in his work as a medical doctor. The article () on ZMAG is long but worth reading. He thinks that poverty or the feeling that you can get poor easily is one of the major causes of stress - and this leads to an unhealthy life and an earlier death.

Small quote:

"We have been seduced into believing in the American Dream, the rags to riches myth, the Horatio Algier stories, where if we just work hard enough we can attain anything we want. The American Dream, ladies and gentlemen, is a nightmare. Among all countries studied, we have the lowest percentage of people making it, in the sense of going from rags to riches, whether in one generation or two. That is what the economists who have studied this show.

And the price we pay for believing in the American Dream is, I say, the ultimate price. Namely, you and I die younger than we need to, so much younger that it is equivalent to winning the war on heart disease. Our president, speaks of the estate tax as the death tax, and it really should be called the Death Averting Tax, since it helps narrow the gap a little and avert deaths. As he signs more tax cuts on the rich into law, he should be honest and tell you that this is a small price to pay for living in this richest and most powerful country in world history, namely you live less healthy and die much younger than you need to. But the rich are appreciative, all the way to the bank. What even they don't know is that even they die younger than they need to by living in this country."

[HuckleB]

10. Nice connection. Thanks. -nt-

[Blue_Tires]

16. do you have a full link??

i can't find it on the site

[dummy-du1]

17. I thought I have

but I can try it again:

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=10&ItemID=4647

[Neoma]

9. True

that explains alot

[psychopomp]

11. I like to believe that the opposite is also true

That stress reduction can be a fountain of youth for us at any age; like quitting smoking, it is never too late to begin the healing.

The ability of us to access this healing is a birthright.

[__Inanna__]

13. This is so true

When I was in grad school (13 years ago) I remember seeing gray hair. Then it went away (after grad school). Then when caring for my dad with Alzeimhers (albeit, briefly) and looking after my mom after surgery, another gray hair popped out. Now my hair is back to normal. I firmly believe that stress will age one immeasurably. I left a very stressful job and chose unemployment (although that has its own stress) to save my life, as the situation really sucked and I could no longer deal with corporate politics. Anyway, this is why I try to make my life as simple as possible, and stay away from certain people (repugs) and corporate schemers.

[TahitiNut]

14. A research path to 'The Fountain of Youth'??

If an 'aging factor' is identified, how long before an 'anti-aging factor' can be formulated? When it is, will it also make people more naive and self-centered? :evilgrin:

[Blue_Tires]

15. no wonder!!!

I started going gray at 25, with no accpetiable genetic explanation (28 now, and it's getting worse)