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Stress ages the body on a cellular level but a healthy lifestyle can reduce the effects, according to a study. Scientists know that the impact of bereavement, redundancy and other crises
builds up over time and accelerates cell ageing. But researchers have discovered eating well plus getting enough sleep and exercise act as a “buffer” against the negative impact on the body.
Stress has been linked to a host of serious conditions from Alzheimer’s to heart disease and cancer. The new study concentrated on telomeres, the protective “caps” at the ends of
chromosomes affecting how cells age. Scientists at the University of California in San Francisco looked at telomeres in people under severe pressure to see what effect their lifestylen, good
or bad, had on their health. Lead researcher Dr Eli Puterman, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry, said: “The study participants who exercised, slept well and ate well
had less telomere shortening than the ones who didn’t maintain healthy lifestyles, even when they had similar levels of stress.” As they become shorter, and as their structural integrity
weakens, the cells age and die more quickly. The caps also shorten with age. Short telomere length has been linked to many age-related diseases, including stroke and osteoporosis. In the
study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers looked at exercise, diet and sleep for one year in 239 post-menopausal, non-smoking women. The women, who gave blood samples
so that their telomeres could be measured, told researchers about the stressful events they had experienced over the 12-month period. There was a greater shortening of immune-cell telomere
length for every major life stressor in the women with less healthy lifestyles. Yet the women with active lifestyles, healthy diets, and good-quality sleep appeared protected from the stress
they experienced and did not appear to exhibit more telomere shortening. Dr Puterman said: “This is the first study that supports the idea that stressful events can accelerate immune-cell
ageing in adults, even in the short period of a year. “These results further suggest that keeping active, and eating and sleeping well during periods of high stress are particularly
important.” Last year, researchers at the same university found that switching to a low-fat vegetarian diet, carrying out regular exercise and even some meditation could all be used to help
reverse the ageing process.