People with lower socio-economic
status appear to age faster than their better-off
counterparts, British researchers said.
They showed that the poor have shorter telomeres,
the caps on chromosomes that prevent them from fraying,
which makes them biologically older than people of
the same age in higher social groups.
"Not only does social class affect health and age-related
diseases, it seems to have an impact on the aging
process itself," said Dr Tim Spector of St Thomas's
Hospital in London.
Each time a cell divides, telomeres shorten. The
loss is associated with aging which is why telomeres
are thought to hold the secrets of youth and the aging
process.
The researchers compared telomere length of 1,552
women twins in Britain between the ages of 18 and
75 who were assigned to one of five groups based on
National Statistics' Socio-Economic Classification.
Even after adjusting for factors such as obesity,
smoking and exercise, which can also influence aging,
the scientists found that telomeres in women of lower
economic status were significantly shorter.
The average difference was equivalent to about seven
years of telomere loss, which also could not be explained
by education or income, according to the study published
in the journal Aging Cell.
"This is equivalent to what could be considered an
extra seven years of biological aging," Spector told
a news conference.
"We are talking about a seven-year difference in
telomere loss between people of the same age, same
body mass index, same smoking status, same exercise
status who happen to be in a manual job or non-manual
job, which roughly divides the social classes," he
added.
When the scientists compared telomere lengths of
17 pairs of twins who had been raised together but
as adults were in different socio-economic groups,
mainly through marriage, the average difference was
equivalent to about nine years' loss.
Spector suspects that lower socio-economic status
has an impact on telomere dynamics.
"The idea is that psychological stress itself or
the loss of control might have a biological impact,"
he said. "It might raise levels of oxidative stress
in the body and make cells turn over more quickly."
Oxidative stress is damage to cells and DNA caused
by free radicals -- charged particles found in the
environment and produced by processes in the body.
