Time to be happy

HEALTH

The University of California is at it again, and a team of scientists there has found that emotional stress has quite a debilitating effect on the immune system.

And it is even worse if your stress turns chronic. If you ever needed convincing about the mind-body theory, the researchers say, this is all the proof you need.

While under stress, the body produces a hormone called cortisol from the adrenal gland. The hormone is also released when one is subject to illness, trauma, surgery, fear, pain, physical exertion or extremes of temperature.

Cortisol, it is said, suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase enzymes. These enzymes keep the cells young and in a primed condition, by making it possible for them to divide.

A telomere, according to the scientists, is like a clock