We are discovering that stress affects every aspect of human functioning – including cancer.

By Edd Hanzelik, MD

Today NPR profiled the work of three scientists who were just awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They discovered telomeres, which protect a cell's chromosomes from fusing with each other or rearranging—abnormalities which can lead to cancer.

Telomeres are the tiny bits of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from degradation. They play a major role in sustaining cancer cells and are expected to open the door to treatment of many diseases including loss of vision, cardiovascular disease, degenerative diseases of the nervous system and even skin wrinkles.

One of the new Nobel Laureates, Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD., has reported that chronic psychological stress and the perception of stress have an impact on  telomeres and on telomerase, the enzyme they discovered that controls  the production of telomeres.  You can read about it here:  Accelerated Telomere  Shortening in Response to Life Stress — http://www.pnas.org/content/101/49/17312.abstract

This is an amazing insight that will help us see how  stress affects so many diseases and brings on early signs of aging. We know that stress affects every system of the human body, but we are just beginning to understand all the ways in which this is carried out. Seeing the impact of stress on the telomeres is a major step in our awareness of  how stress has its immense impact on the functioning of the human body.

More for the curious (an excerpt from the NPR article):

"Blackburn discovered the molecular nature of telomeres, and her research lab now focuses on many different aspects of how telomeres work, including the relationship between accelerated telomere shortening and stress.

She has outlined a mind/body connection to disease through an enzyme that plays a key role in how cells function and age. Blackburn is studying how diet, exercise and decreasing stress may reduce the risk of disease and even reverse damage due to coronary artery disease.

In a 2006 study, her group found that low levels of telomerase, the enzyme that helps keeps telomeres intact, were associated with smoking, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and pre-diabetes. Her lab is now looking at whether interventions such as a very low-calorie diet or stopping smoking may help repair the damage caused by stress."

read the entire NPR article here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113491995