STRESS LESS & feel young!

ADOPT THESE LIFESTYLE HABITS TO LOOK AND FEEL THE BEST YOU CAN

You only have to look at how much Barack Obama aged during his eight years of presidency to see how much stress can affect our looks. While we may not have the job of running a country, many of us are living with high levels of stress.

‘Chronic, ongoing stress can be toxic to our bodies, and can show up as anything from wrinkles, sagging skin, grey hair, weight gain and exhaustion,’ says Thea Singer, author of Stress Less, The New Science That Shows Women How To Rejuvenate The Body And The Mind. The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to slow down the ageing process...

HOW IT HAPPENS

The links between stress and ageing are well documented. Scientists use a measure of a person’s telomere length – little bits at the ends of our chromosomes – to determine their biological age (how their body is ageing) as opposed to how old they actually are.

Longer telomeres equal a younger body. ‘Telomeres shorten with age anyway, but people who have a big stress load tend to have shorter telomeres than people who don’t,’ says Timothy Olds, Professor of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia.

Even everyday stress such as work presentations and cooking dinner while the kids are screaming can be damaging if you’re not someone who copes well with it.

‘What matters in cell ageing is how we perceive stress,’ Thea says. The antidote lies in adopting healthy mind and body habits that crush the stresses in your life.

MEDITATE

Meditation and mindfulness can help slow down the rate of biological ageing due to stress.

‘It helps you handle stress better, and when you meditate, you reduce your levels of circulating stress hormones and reduce your blood pressure,’ Timothy says.

GET GOOD SLEEP

‘[Adults who] sleep too little or too much... are likely to have shorter telomeres and a bigger response to stress,’ Timothy says. ‘The ideal range is seven to nine hours.’ And who doesn’t look refreshed after a good sleep?

EXERCISE

‘If you do one thing to relieve your stress, [make it] exercise and in particular aerobic exercise,’ Thea says. People who are fitter have longer telomeres, as physical activity helps hold back cell ageing, says a study published in the journal Science Advances. Try dancing, swimming or brisk walking.

BE A BETTER FRIEND

Having good social support has well-known benefits for physical and mental health – but a study in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal Of Biobehavioral Medicine showed giving support to others may have positive effects on the brain areas involved in stress response. ‘It has a calming influence when you talk to friends and people,’ says Naomi Eisenberger, Professor of Social Psychology at University of California, Los Angeles.