The short-term benefits of stress may outweigh the long-term negatives. However, chronic stress has been shown to have negative health impacts, including an increased rate of aging.
Resilience is a biological and psychological trait that is connected to reduced detrimental consequences of stress, according to a new study.
Psychiatric and physical health problems are becoming increasingly common as our society experiences more stress than ever before, according to Yale University experts.
“It’s possible that stress accelerates aging because it’s been connected to detrimental long-term health effects.
Epigenetic clocks—a set of DNA methylation indicators that may accurately determine biological age—were the focus of the team’s work. In addition to being able to be examined from blood or saliva, methylation markers are found on every bit of DNA in your body. They used a program named ‘GrimAge’.
Four hundred and forty-four New Haven residents between the ages of 18 and 50 were studied by the researchers. The GrimAge methylation check was performed, and blood samples were taken to test insulin resistance and adrenal sensitivity via questionnaires and blood samples.
There is a clear correlation between cumulative stress and methylation changes, which suggests that those who are more stressed have older cells than they should. This wasn’t simply a biological issue, but the researchers discovered that chronic stress was linked to increased adrenal sensitivity and insulin resistance.
Intriguingly, however, they discovered that not everyone with high levels of chronic stress suffered from the same health problems. Two elements of resilience, emotional regulation and self-control, were associated with less negative outcomes.
A Yale psychiatry researcher, Zachary Harvanek, said in a statement that “These results support the popular notion that stress makes us age faster,”
“They do, however, provide a potential strategy to maybe lessen these negative effects of stress by enhancing emotion regulation and self-control.
Although learning to control one’s emotions and self-regulate isn’t a simple process, it can be taught and improved upon over time. It’s possible that developing these abilities can help us avoid the negative health impacts of stress if it’s not possible to reduce it.
This is still in its infancy at this point. Although the researchers took steps to ensure that their findings were not skewed by other influences, this was an observational study, so we can’t be sure that stress is to blame for the observed alterations.
As a result of these findings, researchers believe that stress may have a role in accelerating aging even before the development of chronic diseases.
Self-control and emotional regulation were found to have a significant impact on this relationship.