工作壓力大有多可怕?

New research shows just how stressful starting a new career as a doctor can be: stressful enough to have your DNA age six times faster than it normally would.

一項新研究表明，開始醫生新職業的壓力有多大：壓力足以讓你的DNA衰老速度比正常情況快六倍。

Scientists studying cellular ageing through DNA telomeres (the 'tips' of our chromosomes), which shrink as we get older, found that this natural shrinkage was happening at an accelerated rate among new doctors – the equivalent of six years' worth of shortening in just 12 months.

科學家通過DNA端粒(染色體的“尖端”)研究細胞衰老，隨着年齡的增長，端粒會收縮。他們發現，新醫生體內的這種自然收縮速度正在加快——這相當於在短短12個月內縮短6年的時間。

It's the first large, longitudinal study to look at the link between chronic stress and cell ageing, and the team behind the research says it could have implications for those in any high-pressure situation, from trainee soldiers to new parents.

這是第一個大型的縱向研究，着眼於慢性壓力和細胞衰老之間的聯繫，研究團隊表示，這可能會對任何高壓環境下的人產生影響，從新兵到新父母。

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"Research has implicated telomeres as an indicator of ageing and disease risk, but these longitudinal findings advance the possibility that telomere length can serve as a biomarker that tracks effects of stress," says one of the team, neuroscientist and psychiatrist Srijan Sen from the University of Michigan (U-M).

“研究表明端粒是衰老和疾病風險的一個指標，但這些縱向研究結果提出了端粒長度可以作爲一種生物標誌物來跟蹤壓力的影響的可能性，”研究小組成員之一、密歇根大學(University of Michigan)的神經學家和精神病學家斯里揚·森(Srijan Sen)說。

"It will be important to study how telomere changes play out in larger groups of medical trainees and in other groups of people subjected to specific prolonged stresses."

“研究端粒變化如何在更大範圍的醫學培訓生羣體和其他長期承受特定壓力的人羣中發揮作用，將是很重要的。”

The researchers took DNA samples from 250 new doctors at the start and end of their first intern year. These were compared to samples from 84 U-M freshmen students. In addition, the team measured the participants' mental well-being and stress levels over time with the use of questionnaires throughout the year.

研究人員從250名新醫生身上提取了DNA樣本，這些醫生都是在他們第一個實習年度的開始和結束時進行的。這些數據與84名密歇根大學新生的樣本進行了比較。此外，研究小組還通過全年的問卷調查，測量了參與者的心理健康和壓力水平。

Besides "telomere attrition" being six times greater in the doctors, some other interesting findings came to light – for example, the longer hours the new doctors worked, the faster their telomeres shrank.

除了醫生的“端粒磨損”是常人的六倍之外，一些有趣的發現也浮出水面——例如，新醫生工作的時間越長，他們的端粒萎縮得越快。