'The Voice' Crowns Its Winner
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Love and Attention a Matter of Life and Death for Kids
Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Big Kids
Children institutionalized early in life have shortened telomeres, which may lead to health consequences. Credit: Getty Images
Researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston looked at the DNA of Romanian children locked away in institutions and found continued neglect can actually alter chromosomes and speed up the aging process -- driving people to early graves.
According to U.S. News & World Report, some of the 62 boys and 47 girls studied remained in institutions while others were sent to high-quality foster care. The ones who remained warehoused had premature shortening of chromosome tips (telomeres) by the time they were 6 to 10 years old.
"The telomere is designed to protect the chromosome, so accelerating how early in life telomeres lose length correlates with shortened life span," lead researcher Charles Nelson, director of the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Children's Hospital Boston, says in a hospital news release. "Children institutionalized early in life have shortened telomeres, which may lead to health consequences downstream, including premature aging."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-20-2011 @ 3:00PM
Alice Aspen March said...Hurrah for your research, your newsletter and your blog. As the creator of TheAttentionFactor(R), I've been speaking about this phenomeon for a very long time. The kind of attention we receive in our childhoods lasts forever, both emotionally, physically and psychologically. Our early beginnings show up everywhere, and cause us great struggle. We adults have much inner work to do, which when we do it, we can go on to live healthy and productive lives.
Please keep getting the word out to the pubic.l
Reply