足球直播时间表:态度：决定你生命的长度

端粒对于染色体而言，就好像是鞋带两端的塑料帽，它们保护鞋带两端不受磨损。和鞋带不同的是，伴随着细胞的一次次分裂，染色体自身不断复制，因此，两端的端粒便会缩短。在经过50-70次（这一数字由海弗利克极限理论而得）的细胞分裂后，染色体便短到无法复制，细胞也就不能再分裂了。

That provides a backstop against cancer. The rapidly dividing cells in a tumour soon hit the Hayflick limit and the process is brought to a screeching halt. Which is a good thing. The bad thing is that reaching the limit is one of the markers of old age. You do not want it to happen too quickly, particularly in tissues that have to do a lot of dividing in order to work properly, such as those in the immune system.

这一理论用来很好地解释癌症状况。肿瘤中细胞的快速分裂使其很快的达到海弗利克极限数值，因此整个细胞分裂过程戛然而止。也许这是个好事，但不幸的是，细胞分裂达到海弗利克极限数值也意味着人体进入老龄化状态。你不会希望这事儿发生的太早，尤其在一些需要分裂多次来维持正常机能的组织器官中，比如我们的免疫系统。

It has been known for some time that chronic stress (caring for a child with a protracted illness, for example) causes premature shortening of the telomeres. What has not been clear is whether this is a one-way trip, with each stressful period turning the telomeric ratchet irreversibly. This week, though, at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando, Florida, a group of researchers led by Edward Nelson of the University of California, Irvine, showed that it isn’t. Their research suggests that stress management not only stops telomeres from shortening, it actually promotes their repair.

众所周知，长期处于精神压力下(比如，长期照顾一个患有慢性病的孩子)会提前缩短端粒长度。人们不清楚的是，这一效应是否为单向的，即，人体所经历的每一段压力过程是否会不可逆地缩短端粒长度。本周，在佛罗里达，奥兰多召开的美国癌症研究学会的大会上，由佛罗里达大学的Edward Nelson带领的科研团队发表的他们研究结果，证明事实并非如此。他们的研究发现，有效地压力管理缓解紧张不仅能够停止端粒的减短，事实上还能促进端粒自身的修复。

Dr Nelson drew this welcome conclusion from a previous study that measured the impact of telephone counselling on women who had been treated for cervical cancer. The study found that such counselling worked, both mentally and physically. Women who had been counselled reported that the quality of their lives had improved, compared with those of a control group who had not been counselled. They also showed improvements in the strength of their immune systems.

Nelson博士这一喜人的结论来自于前期的研究，测评电话辅导对宫颈癌患者病情的影响。这一研究发现，电话辅导对患者的精神和体质方面都是有帮助的。进行过电话辅导的患者说她们的生活质量和没有辅导的对照组相比有所提高。她们还说，自身的免疫系统也比以前更加强健。

Given those benefits, Dr Nelson wondered if he could find others, and he re-examined the participants’ samples to look at the lengths of the telomeres in their white blood cells (red cells have no nuclei, and therefore no chromosomes). What he found surprised him. Not only did counselling stop telomere shrinkage, it actually promoted telomere growth. Those women for whom counselling had worked (ie, those who reported a decrease in emotional stress) had longer telomeres at the end than they did at the beginning. Their Hayflick countdowns were being reset.

既然有这么多好处。Nelson博士希望能否再发现其他的作用，因此，他重新检查了患者的白细胞样本（红细胞没有细胞核，所以就没有染色体），测量其中的端粒长度。结果令他惊讶。电话辅导不仅停止了端粒的缩短，还促进了端粒的生长。那些接受电话辅导的患者确实如此，比如那些说自己精神压力得到一定舒缓的女性患者们，她们的端粒比刚开始实验时长了一些，意味着，她们体内细胞分裂数到达海弗利克极限的数值将被重新计算。

A single such result must, of course, be treated with caution. But another study reported at the meeting, by Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco (who shared the Nobel prize for the discovery of the enzyme that repairs telomeres), gave some support. This showed that exercise has a similar effect to counselling on the telomeres of the stressed.

当然，单有这么一个结果不足为信，要谨慎对待。但大会上又有一报道，圣弗兰西斯科，加利福尼亚大学的Elizabeth Blackburn（因发现修复端粒的酶类而共同获得诺贝尔奖）给予一定的支持。他们的研究发现，在压力缓解方面，锻炼能够给端粒带来与电话辅导相似的效果。

If Dr Nelson’s work is successfully replicated, it will shine more light on the ill-understood relationship between the health of the mind and the health of the body. For, as he points out, nothing actually changed in the lives of the women in question. They still had cancer, albeit under treatment, and they were still under stress. Nothing, that is, except their attitude.

如果Nelson博士的实验结果重复成功，就为进一步研究健康心理同健康体质两者间关系的道路带来更多希望。正如他自己所说的，实际上，那些女性患者的生活没有任何改变。尽管在进行治疗，但她们已经患有癌症，始终处于压力之下。什么都没有变，唯一改变的，只是她们对待疾病的态度罢了。