If you count yourself among the working poor, or one of the vanishing middle-class in a constant struggle to make ends meet, do not read this -- it is not going to cheer you up.

The most significant and unavoidable risk factor that increases the chance of being diagnosed with cancer is the aging process. The older we get, the more susceptible we are to developing cancer. Because of this fact, research into the aging process, how we age, and why we age -- even if the research is not specifically looking at the link between aging and increased cancer risk -- still might one day provide some insight into the potential for reducing cancer risks associated with aging.

British researchers have discovered, through the study of telomeres, that socio-economic status seem to have a biological effect that causes people in the lower classes to age faster and have more cell damage. The researchers explain that each time a cell divides, telomeres shorten. The shorter the telomeres get, the more biologically aged we become.

When British researchers compared the telomeres -- the caps on chromosomes that keep them from fraying -- of poor people to those of rich people, they found that poor people had shorter telomeres.

The comparisons were made by studying the telomeres of 1,552 women twins in Britain between the ages of 18 and 75, who found themselves as adults in different social and economic classes due to marriage. Smoking, exercise and obesity were taken into account, and still the social and economic status appears to effect telomere length, so much so that women in the lower classes are biologically aging seven years faster than women in better social and economic classes.

Dr Tim Spector of St Thomas's Hospital in London stated, "The idea is that psychological stress itself or the loss of control might have a biological impact. It might raise levels of oxidative stress, which damages cells and DNA, in the body and make cells turn over more quickly."

One day, will higher social and economic status be added to the list of cancer prevention lifestyle strategies? And do the Fountain of Youth waters flow from a good education, a good job and marrying well? According to the results of this study, maybe so.