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Caregivers' Stress Adds to Aging
June 30, 2003 -- It's no surprise that the stress of caring for a loved one with serious illness can age you before your time. And now, a new study suggests exactly how -- through a chemical reaction that weakens the body's immune system and accelerates the aging process.
During periods of stress, so-called "stress" hormones are released that trigger a cascade of physiologic changes. These include increased production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), an inflammatory chemical that has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and other conditions often associated with aging.
A new study suggests that caregivers' stress may make them especially vulnerable to these elevated IL-6 levels -- and arguably, these diseases.
Caregivers' Chemical Boost
Researchers report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that study participants who cared for an Alzheimer's patient typically had blood levels of IL-6 four times as high as those who were not caregivers -- despite being otherwise similar in age, lifestyle, and income bracket.
What's more, these IL-6 levels in the caregivers remained high for up to three years -- even after their loved ones had died.
"One can suggest that an immune system that is naturally less efficient [at preventing disease] as you age may become permanently damaged and get to the point where it cannot recover from an insult like this," says researcher Ronald Glaser, PhD, of Ohio State University College of Medicine and its Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research. "And caregiving is certainly a stressful enough event to do that."
His study helps explain previous findings that caregivers typically suffer from impaired immunity, and therefore may be more vulnerable to various serious health problems compared with those under less stress. But it also suggests how quickly this type of major stress can age a caregiver.
People don't usually have the highest levels of IL-6 in the blood until they're about 90, Glaser tells WebMD. "In our study, we found those high levels in caregivers who were around age 75." His six-year study included 117 caregivers and 106 others, all between 55 and 89 but with an average age of about 70.
Interleukin-6 naturally increases with age, which is one reason why seniors tend to be more susceptible to disease. Regardless of age, high IL-6 levels are also associated with increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and certain cancers, which typically happen after middle age, when immunity naturally weakens.
Other factors that increase production of IL-6 include obesity -- fat cells make this compound -- as well as smoking and poor sleep. Conversely, regular exercise can decrease IL-6 levels, says Glaser.
"This study is significant because IL-6 is probably the prototype that provides the link between stress and metabolic syndromes such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity," says Paul J. Rosch, MD, a stress researcher for some 50 years who is president of the American Institute of Stress and a professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. He was not involved in Glaser's study.
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