DNA ageing linked to joblessness
Jobless? You may be ageing faster than the rest of us.
Scientists made the discovery after examining a genetic marker of biological ageing in DNA samples from 5,620 Finnish men and women.
They focused on telomeres, caps on the ends of chromosomes that perform a similar role to the plastic ends of shoelaces, by preventing DNA becoming frayed and degraded.
Telomeres shorten as cells divide, eventually ceasing to function.
They shorten at different rates over the lifetimes of different individuals, and short telomeres are linked to age related conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The British and Finnish scientists looked at telomere length in blood cell samples collected in 1997, when all the participants were 31 years old.
Men who had been unemployed for more than two of the preceding three years were more than twice as likely to have short telomeres as men who were continuously employed.
There was no such DNA trend found in women.
