Assessing The Role Of Chronic Stress In Aging Among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: A Pilot Study
Life on the streets often comes with immense challenges, and new research sheds light on how these difficulties can impact a person’s biological age. A recent pilot study explored the connection between ongoing stress and the shortening of telomeres, which are protective caps on our DNA that naturally get shorter as we age. Shorter telomeres are often seen as a marker of accelerated biological aging.
The study compared individuals experiencing homelessness with those in stable housing, examining factors like health status, stress hormone levels (cortisol), and telomere length. While the study found no significant differences in anxiety or cortisol levels between the two groups, a crucial finding emerged: the number of chronic illnesses a person had was strongly linked to shorter telomere lengths. This suggests that the burden of chronic health conditions, which can be exacerbated by the stressors of homelessness, plays a significant role in how quickly someone’s body ages at a cellular level. Essentially, the more chronic health problems an individual faced, the more their biological clock appeared to be sped up.
Source: link to paper