“Look at you. You look really young.” This statement makes your day!
Stress has become an inherent part of our modern life. Everyday stressors, traumatic events, job strain and even stressful family life can prematurely weaken body’s immunity and increases risk of aging. Don’t be surprised! This may be a harsh reality. Let’s find it out how stress causes cells to worn out early.
Stress can have an impact on every system in the body. The reaction starts when your body senses danger or some other need to fight. Your muscles tense up, your breathing gets heavier, your blood pressure goes up. That’s because your body is releasing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol so you have the power and energy to address the threat. Toxic stress, especially in children, can weaken their overall development and impact brain architecture.
Positive response to stress is good in small doses, like when you bump into something but are able to react quickly and catch it before it falls over. The problem comes in when those feelings happen really often, or sometimes even all the time. Constantly dealing with a state of stress can cause elevated blood pressure, problems with the immune system, anxiety, depression, heartburn, digestion issues, and more.
Mental health & Emotional Wellbeing
The stress response is an adaptive mechanism that allows mobilizing all the resources of the body to fight a temporary threat. When the process becomes chronic, the stress associated with adaptive mechanisms becomes destructive. Glucocorticoids, steroidal hormones released in the body during stress, are powerful medicines that fight inflammation and work with your immune system to treat wide range of health problems.
Glucocorticoid receptors are present in most cells of the body, so the stress response is very generalized. These hormones have many jobs, such as controlling how your cells use sugar and fat and curbing inflammation. Cells receive a huge number of signals that significantly affect their physiology. In the case of immune system cells, this process is even more pronounced. Cellular responses to such essential stress signals are almost always associated with redox regulation as a result, the entire body falls under conditions of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a bodily condition that happens when your antioxidant levels are low. These levels can be measured through your blood plasma. When there is an imbalance of reactive oxygen species, also known as free radicals, and antioxidant defenses, your body experiences oxidative stress. Conditions are created for accelerated aging and the development of a wide variety of pathologies associated with aging.
Here are the stress symptoms to look for and avoid fast aging
- Changes in eating habits- both over and under eating
- Changes in mood, such as anxiety, sadness, being more irritable, or overactivity
- Short-term memory or concentration difficulty or mental fogging
- Socially isolating
- Having more headaches or aches and pains in general
- Being sick frequently, especially allergies
- Weight loss or weight gain
- Excessive fatigue or trouble sleeping
Scientists and researchers have long understood that what truly impacts your life and keeps your aging away are basics of everyday life – eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, sleeping time and investing in healthy relationships.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400286/
- https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/what-are-glucocorticoids
- https://getvipcare.com/blog/effects-of-stress-and-aging/
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.01545/full