psychological stress that leads to increased cellular ageing.

1. Psychological Stress is the recipe for
increased Cellular ageing
Muhammad Jamal
PhD Candidate
University of Karachi

2. Stress
Abnormal Sleep pattern
Immune deficiency
Forgetfulness
Depression
Ageing
Abnormal Feeding Behavior
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3. Mechanism

5. Professor Elizabeth Blackburn
Noble Prize Winner 2009
Elizabeth Blackburn is
the Nobel Laureate who
discovered telomeres
and telomerase, helping
us begin to understand
the process of aging at a
genetic level.

6. Telomere and Telomerase
 At the end of each chromosome are telomeres,
regions of repetitive DNA sequence that serve to
protect and stabilize the chromosome.
 Telomerase adds telomeric repeats to the end of
chromosomes during cell division, thereby decelerating the
rate of telomere erosion over time
(Greider & Blackburn, 1985).

7. Stress in early life
 In particular, stress during early life and the resulting
developmental influences are known to have
powerful effects on aging processes in later life (Heim
& Nemeroff, 2001; Miller, Chen, & Parker, 2011).
 Greater maternal stress during pregnancy was linked
to shorter TL in offspring (Entringer et al., 2013)

8. Social isolation

9.  Negative health behaviors like smoking and substance
abuse are associated with shorter TL (Pavanello et al.,
2011; Valdes et al., 2005).
 On the other hand, exercise has been shown to
mitigate the effects of chronic stress on TL (Puterman
et al., 2010), as well as mindfulness meditation, which
has been shown to increase telomerase activity
(Jacobs et al., 2011; Schutte & Malouff, 2014),
suggesting a protective effect on the rate of telomere
erosion.

10. Mitochondrial damage
 Mitochondria as
governors of biological
aging, wherein a feed-
forward loop of
mitochondrial DNA
damage leads to
increased free radical
production and
accelerated aging.

11. Coping of Stress
 Eat healthy diet
 Exercise
 Talk to others and
share your problems
 Avoid drugs and
smoking
 Meditation