Your stressful job is indeed aging you, study confirms

www.nbcnews.com

By Brian Alexander, NBC July 27, 2012

Everybody knows too much stress and anxiety is bad for you. It dents the immune system, the cardiovascular system and may even contribute to cancer. Now it appears that one common source of stress -- our jobs -- could be having damaging effects on critical DNA in our cells. And that could lead to early aging, and the diseases and conditions that go along with it.

A study led by Kirsi Ahola of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health measured the length of DNA sections called telomeres and how the lengths varied in association with job stress. It found that people with the most job stress tended to have shorter telomeres.

.....

As a result, those workers could face the diseases of aging sooner than they might otherwise. Telomere shortening has been associated with Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. In short, a constantly stressful job could make you old before your time.

.....

A number of life stressors aside from work, such as marital troubles, poverty, early childhood experience, gender (males tend to have shorter telomeres) -- as well as genetic makeup and health behaviors like smoking and diet – also appear to affect telomere length. For example, people who have experienced childhood trauma tend to be less able to cope with stress later in life and also tend to have shorter telomeres. The Finnish researchers adjusted their findings to take some of these factors into account, but it’s not possible to filter them out completely.

Still, O’Donovan doesn’t doubt the validity of the link between work stress and telomere shortening. “When you get a high enough dose of stress, hardly anyone is resilient,” she explained. “People can be resilient to one or two types of stressors in certain periods of time, but once it becomes cumulative, across domains, it’s rare to find resilient people.”