| The lives of Alzheimer’s caregivers may be shortened four to eight years. |
If you’re a caregiver, it’s not all in your head. Chronic stress is very, very bad for you. According to a study published in the September 2007 issue of the Journal of Immunology family caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients may shorten their own lives by four to eight years because of the stress involved. This is confirmation of something most family caregivers suspect from their own experience.
The heart of the current study is an explanation, at the level of biochemistry, of how life expectancy can actually be affected. What follows here is a little bit technical. I’ll do my best to keep it short, but please bear with me for the next four paragraphs.
Every cell in the body contains chromosomes–long, rope-like molecules that contain the genetic instructions a cell needs to divide into two copies of itself. The chemistry involved, however, doesn’t always copy the chromosomes all the way to the end of the “rope.”
For this reason, each chromosome has an area of repetitive, non-essential genetic material called a telomere at the end. The telomere acts as a “cap” on the chromosome. When a cell divides, the essential genetic information in the chromosome gets copied, even if part of the telomere gets left behind.
An enzyme called telomerase repairs the telomere to keep it from disappearing completely after a few cell divisions. As the body ages, however, the activity of telomerase lessens and the telomeres in every cell begin to shorten. At some point, important genetic information begins to get lost in cell division. Cellular changes accumulate and can ultimately result in death.
The rate of cellular change, therefore, has a lot to do with life expectancy. Forces that slow down the changes lengthen life. Forces that speed them up shorten life.
The study found that the chronic stress experienced by family members who care for Alzheimer’s patients speeds up the changes so that cells are four to eight years “older” than they otherwise would be. Family caregivers’ lives can be shortened accordingly.
The point here of course is that caregiver stress can be a killer. It isn’t just tiring and unpleasant. The study examined only family caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients, but it seems likely that all longterm family caregivers are affected in the same way.
If you are a family caregiver, you need to acknowledge that your situation is inherently stressful, and you need an effective strategy for managing and controlling that stress. Your own life is at stake.
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