Worried that being in stressful situations might harm you? Don't worry, it might be good for your cells as it delays the risk of disease.

‘Small amounts of stress may be desired, beneficial, and even healthy. Signals from mildly stressed mitochondria prevent the failure of protein-folding quality control machinery that comes with age.’

"Our findings offer us a strategy for looking at ageing in humans and how we might prevent or stabilise against cell decline as we age," said Richard I. Morimoto, Professor at the Northwestern University. 




"Our goal is not trying to find ways to make people live longer but rather to increase health at the cellular and molecular levels, so that a person's span of good health matches their lifespan," Morimoto added.
For the study, published in the journal Cell Reports, the team screened a transparent roundworm C. elegans' approximately 22,000 genes.
The researchers found that signals from mildly stressed mitochondria -- the cellular source of energy -- prevent the failure of protein-folding quality control (proteostasis) machinery that comes with age.
This, in turn, suppresses the accumulation of damaged proteins that can occur in degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
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"It makes the animals completely stress-resistant and doubles their lifespan. It's like magic," he added.
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Source-IANS