How Does Stress Affect Aging?

by Carmen
(Australia)

Stress causes wear and tear on our bodies.

Our individual responses to stress can be different. Some people may experience headaches, hives and irritability while others may feel anxiety and heart palpitations. What one person perceives as exciting, another might feel is dangerous. Heart rate and blood pressure increase in reaction to stressors. During this process other systems of our body such as the immune system or nervous system is affected.

It has been suggested that stress is one of the causes of physiological decline with aging. It is definite that aging affects our ability to respond to stress.

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Stress accelerates the aging process.

Some people age faster biologically. Signs of advanced aging are baldness, skin that become dry, tight and scaly, sunken features, superficial veins are prominent, joints are enlarged and stiff and severe arteriosclerosis.

In a research done on mothers at the University of California at San Francisco it was found that stressed-out mothers had shorter telomores than those who were not stressed, which corresponded to 9-17 years worth of aging . (Telomores are DNA sequences that relate to proper functioning of the cells.)

The mothers who were feeling less stress were better able to handle the stressors in their lives. Better stress management skills resulted in having better health.

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How does stress affect health?

Stress has the potential to cause havoc on our physical and mental health. We may experience physical symptoms such as headaches, ulcers, hives or emotional symptoms such as depression, irritability and anger. So, what does it take to effectively cope with stress?

Stress is inevitable in today's society. In early times people lived to be over 100 years old, which may be due to the absence of stress in their lives. But our style of living in these days promotes stress.

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How can we cope with stress?

Resilience to stress involves knowledge of how stress affects health coupled with coping mechanisms and a stress free- attitude to handle life'd ups and downs. A common factor with people who live a long and active life feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, have social support, and engage in altruistic activities. This ensures psychological health, which in turn gives us a buffer against stress provoking situations.

Basically, if we feel happier in life, we cope better and age less.

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Bibliography
(Please also see the Bibliography at www.stressaffect.com)

Hill, M.A. (2005). Stress your mom isn't good for her health. Odyssey, 14(8).

Seyle, H. (1956). The Stress of Life. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Holmes, D., & Rahe, R. (1967). The Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213-218.

High stress shreds your dna. New Scientist, London, 184(2476).


About The Author
Carmen holds a Counselling Diploma and is currently completing a Bachelor of Social Science with Counselling and Psychology. She owns and creates an online business called www.stressaffect.com which answers the question: How does stress affect health? It is a comprehensive guide to stress, its affects, and coping with it. Click on www.stressaffect.com to create your personal stress management program using the 5-step process on the home page. Please contact me via my website for information.
© 2007.