Depression Can Affect Every Aspect of Your Body and Mind…Right Down to Your DNA, Study Says

by DailyHealthPost Editorial

depression

Depression Shortens Telomeres

telomeres shortening

When the researchers on the study re-examined their results, they noticed another consistency: women with stress-related depression had shorter telomeres than women without stress-related depression.

Telomeres are essentially caps at the ends of our chromosomes which protect DNA. They shorten naturally with age, which caused the research team to question whether the shortening process of telomeres was sped up by stress or trauma.

To confirm this hypothesis, they decided to test it in a mouse model. Over a period of weeks, they placed mice in stressful situations and monitored them for any genetic or cellular changes.

Once again, they were surprised to have their hypothesis confirmed by the mouse experiment. Not only did the stressed mice have an increase in mitochondrial DNA by the end of the trial period, but they also had shorter telomeres than the control group(4).

Consistent Findings

While this study gives only a “snapshot” of the relationship between depression and our DNA, it’s not the first to make the connection between stress, mental illness and change at a cellular level.

Earlier this year, a team of researchers reported that trauma in childhood can alter the way your cells age(5).

The good news is that the damage is at least partially reversible; a 2014 study, for example, found that mindfulness meditation and yoga can actually help maintain telomere length despite stress(6).

Emotional Stress and Rate of Telomeres Shortening

Emotions, Stress, and Rate of Telomere Shortening: Are Our Cells Listening to Us?

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