How stress is ageing your whole body
It is manageable, but not preventable.
Stress is manageable, but not preventable. Everyone goes through stressful experiences of varying degrees.
We sometimes think that stress is just in the mind: a reaction to a situation that will go away by itself (or when the situation resolves). Then, we think, we recover and go back to feeling normal. Stress, however, has many longterm effects on your body and is ageing many different parts of you. What exactly is it doing, and how is it doing it?
IT AGES YOUR BRAIN
According to new (yet unpublished) research by University of Wisconsin, stressful life experiences can age your brain by several years.
Overall, those who experienced one of such stresses (or, arguably, we should call them traumas) saw their brain function age four years faster than it usually would. Four major traumas in a lifetime, thus, would theoretically age the brain by 16 years.
The effects of this are impairment on immediate memory, both verbal and visual learning and memory, and ability to recall stories.
IT DAMAGES YOUR CELLS
Occupational stress (i.e. from work) has a negative effect on some of your vital DNA cells, a PLoS ONE journal article found. Prolonged work stress accelerates biological ageing and causes your leukocyte telomeres to be shorter than those with no occupational stress.
IT RAISES YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE
Sustained stress decreases the body’s ability to control its cardiovascular system and moderate the way it responds.
The chemicals produced in your body from prolonged stress, cortisol and norepinephrine, gradually increase your blood pressure and ages your arteries.
IT AGES YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
Ageing of the immune system is closely related to chronic stress and natural ageing.
Stress in your older age is perhaps the most concerning: there’s much evidence out there from sources such as Brain Behaviour and Immunity journal providing evidence of how stress in older adults contribute to the effects that mimic, exacerbate, and potentially accelerate decreased immune function.
IT GIVES YOU WRINKLES
It’s no secret that stress leads to wrinkles on your face, but through what mechanism is this happening?
It’s the combined result of changes to your telomeres, cells, blood pressure, and immunity: they all lead to premature ageing.
While this kind of superficial ageing happens to both sexes, most research has been conducted on women.