Grant: Operating Grant

The number of individuals reaching 65 years and older is increasing significantly. With aging often come a number of illnesses, including heart disease. The costs of treatment and loss of productivity are great, and likely to worsen. It is critical that we better understand the factors that contribute to ill health with aging, and the mechanisms by which they do so. One biological marker of aging is telomere length. Telomeres are found at the end of chromosomes and are important in assuring that chromosomes remain healthy. However, telomeres shorten with age, which is why telomere length can be used as an index of how the cells age within an individual. The shorter the telomere, the more likely the individual is to suffer from disease or to die early. Psychological factors, such as depression and chronic stress, impact on how a person ages. The more a person is (di)stressed, the more he/she is likely to suffer from physical ailments or to die prematurely. A few small studies suggest that depression or stress can shorten telomeres. We will examine the relation between psychological factors and telomere length in 1518 adults recruited for the Montreal Heart Institute Hospital Cohort. Participants will be healthy or suffering from heart disease, and will be seen once at recruitment and every 2 years afterwards. We will see whether telomeres get shorter faster (and therefore, age earlier) when individuals are more distressed psychologically, and whether this increases risk for adverse events (hospitalizations, mortality). Those who suffer from heart disease may age even faster because of the added stress of being ill. This project will help us understand why a person ages worse than others. To the extent that psychological factors are important, their effect on aging can be minimized by addressing (or even better, preventing) the distress. Medications or other interventions that protect the telomeres from stress could also be developed.