Stress is not just an unpleasant feeling. It’s a legitimate health concern, as both scientists and doctors have attested. declared a public health problem. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased personal stress levels, and doctors are recommending special diets (such as switching to plant-based meal plans) tailored to reduce stress. At the very least, people know that stress makes them miserable, so they want to avoid it. You feel tired, you feel grumpy all the time, and your body ages faster than if you were simply relaxed.
“Biological age increased in some physiological stress situations, but was preserved when the stressful situations were removed.”
In fact, this last symptom is particularly frightening because it seems to be permanent, unlike other symptoms of stress.not yet Recent research The journal Cell Metabolism was the first to demonstrate that stress-induced rapid aging can be reversed when the stress itself is removed. These findings have great implications for both the treatment of stress and the treatment of aging.
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Massachusetts General Brigham, gathered data from existing research on conditions likely to lead to severe physiological stress. These included elderly patients in emergencies, pregnant women in the stages of pregnancy and childbirth (and pregnant mice), and patients admitted to the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Scientists then analyzed DNA methylation levels in cells to detect molecular changes that indicate increased risk of morbidity and mortality. In short, they wanted a “biological clock.”
“In all analyses, the researchers identified an indication that biological age increases in some physiological stress situations, but accumulates when the stressful situations are resolved,” said the researchers. wrote. A major caveat to this is that biomarkers may reflect factors other than biological age. Still, “this study represents a new understanding of the nature of biological aging and has implications for research into antiaging interventions,” the study authors explained.
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“People with better emotional control and higher levels of self-control were observed to experience less accelerated aging at the same level of stress.”
“Our results question the notion that biological age only increases throughout life,” said lead author Vadim Gradyshev of the Brighams Department of Genetics. “It suggests that we may be able to identify interventions that reverse the disease.”and statement“When stress is reduced, biological age can be restored. This means that finding ways to help your body recover from stress can potentially extend your life.” .”
If there’s hope for those who fear that stress will cause them to age rapidly and don’t want to wait for new drugs, it’s that there are more accessible alternatives to controlling their emotions.
according to 2021 survey In the journal Translated Psychiatry, which measured subjects based on Greage (Epigenetic Clock), “People with better emotional control and higher levels of self-control were observed to experience less accelerated aging at the same level of stress”, with poor emotional control, Stress has as much negative impact on Grim Age as BMI.
Emotional regulation here is defined as people with skills such as “emotional awareness, goals, clarity, strategy, acceptance, and impulse control in managing their emotions.” GrimAge may have increased because people with high stress levels were more likely to develop unhealthy habits such as drinking, smoking, overeating, and sedentary behavior, but the tendency was influenced by these lifestyle factors. was present even when caused by In contrast, healthy distractions such as exercise and creative hobbies can help reduce stress and depression by providing an outlet for negative energy rather than triggering negative stress-causing emotions.
This does not mean that you should avoid all forms of stress. The difference between healthy and unhealthy stress is that over the long term, the latter can lead to atrophy of the parts of the brain that control emotions and metabolism, causing memory impairment and mental illness later in life. Positive stress is rewarding and some negative stress is tolerable, but when a person experiences too many negative psychological and/or physical consequences of stress and it interferes with normal functioning. , “harmful stress” exists.
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