Cited by 339Telomeres, Telomerase, and SenescencePhysical Activity and HealthExercise and Physiological Responses

The power of exercise: buffering the effect of chronic stress on telomere length

Open access
Puterman, Eli, Lin, Jue, Blackburn, Elizabeth, O'Donovan, Aoife, Adler, Nancy, Epel, Elissa·2010·PLoS ONE

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Chronic psychological stress is associated with detrimental effects on physical health, and may operate in part through accelerated cell aging, as indexed by shorter telomeres at the ends of chromosomes. However, not all people under stress have distinctly short telomeres, and we examined whether exercise can serve a stress-buffering function. We predicted that chronic stress would be related to short telomere length (TL) in sedentary individuals, whereas in those who exercise, stress would not have measurable effects on telomere shortening. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 63 healthy post-menopausal women underwent a fasting morning blood draw for whole blood TL analysis by a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method. Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983), and for three successive days reported daily minutes of vigorous activity. Participants were categorized into two groups-sedentary and active (those getting Centers for Disease Control-recommended daily amount of activity). The likelihood of having short versus long telomeres was calculated as a function of stress and exercise group, covarying age, BMI and education. Logistic regression analyses revealed a significant moderating effect of exercise. As predicted, among non-exercisers a one unit increase in the Perceived Stress Scale was related to a 15-fold increase in the odds of having short telomeres (p<.05), whereas in exercisers, perceived stress appears to be unrelated to TL (B = -.59, SE = .78, p = .45). DISCUSSION: Vigorous physical activity appears to protect those experiencing high stress by buffering its relationship with TL. We propose pathways through which physical activity acts to buffer stress effects.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0010837

Cites

65 of 65 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Among 63 healthy postmenopausal women, those who self-reported participation in vigorous physical activity had longer telomeres in circulating leukocytes than those who were sedentary.

    “Among 63 healthy postmenopausal women, those who self-reported participation in vigorous physical activity had longer telomeres in circulating leukocytes than those who were sedentary (62).”
  • Structured exercise interventions consisting of endurance training and increasing levels of habitual physical activity have been shown to promote DNA repair pathways as well as resistance to ROS and telomere erosion.

    “Notably, structured exercise interventions consisting of endurance training and increasing levels of habitual physical activity have been shown to promote DNA repair pathways as well as resistance to ROS and telomere erosion (Brett et al., 2020; Gomez-Cabrera et al., 2008; Puterman et al., 2010; Radák et al., 2002).”
  • Puterman et al. (2010) found in caregiving and non-caregiving post-menopausal women that highly stressed women have shorter telomeres, but only if they are inactive, suggesting a protective effect of exercise.

    “The same group of investigators previously found, in a group of caregiving and non-caregiving post-menopausal women, that highly stressed women have shorter telomeres, but only if they are inactive, suggesting a protective effect of exercise (Puterman et al., 2010).”
  • Puterman et al. (2010) was cross-sectional, so causal interpretations are difficult, especially since the more highly stressed women were less likely to be physically active.

    “Since that study was cross-sectional, though, it is difficult to draw causal interpretations, especially since the more highly stressed women were less likely to be physically active.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Puterman, E., Lin, J., Blackburn, E., O'Donovan, A., Adler, N., & Epel, E.
Affiliations
University of California, San Francisco (US)
Corresponding author
Puterman, Eli
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2010-05-26
Volume
5
Issue
5
Pages
e10837
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2071661381
Cited by
339
References
65
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 29
FWCI
16.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (RR024131)
  • Center for AIDS Research, University of Washington
  • University of California, San Francisco (P30AI027763, UL1RR024131)
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (P30AI027763)
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR024131, RR 024131)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
Keywords
physical activity, chronic psychological stress, telomere length, stress buffering, sedentary behavior, cellular aging, postmenopausal women, perceived stress, vigorous activity
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Stress, Psychological, Exercise, Telomere, Sedentary Behavior

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review