Stress, the evil of the century, not only has a deleterious impact on health but also drastically reduces longevity, according to a recent study.
- According to researchers, stress causes our body to lose a significant number of years of life.
- Indeed, it increases biological age and makes us more susceptible to developing stress-related illnesses and even dying.
- One way to reverse the deleterious effects of stress is to rest, the researchers explain.
30 years ! This is the number of years of life that daily stress can cause us to lose, according to researchers who published a study in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism.
Stress makes us age faster
In the study, the scientists explain that unlike chronological age (the number of years of life), biological age is fluctuating: it corresponds to that of our organism according to our form and our health, and it is not static, nor constantly increasing.
It actually depends on several factors. Periods of intense stress such as an infection, major surgery, lifestyle change, pregnancy… can alter DNA and bring us closer to death faster, explain the authors.
Stress can cause physical and mental illnesses
Stress is the body’s natural response to a threat and can be useful from time to time to react quickly and get to safety if necessary, for example. But this warning phenomenon is not harmless to the body : it increases cortisone levels which make the heart beat faster and cause muscle tension.
In addition, when stress becomes recurrent or even permanent, we speak of chronic stress, and it is particularly harmful to the body, physical and mental health. Stress is thus one of the main causes of illness and death in the world, say the scientists.
In France, 9 out of 10 French people say they are affected by stress and 200,000 new diseases caused by stress (such as cardiovascular or digestive diseases or even mental disorders) are declared each year according to a study of the National Institute for Research and Security (INRS)
Rest after stress is essential
To carry out their work, the researchers subjected mice to prolonged stress, which increased their biological age. The good news, according to the researchers, is that there is a fairly simple solution to restore it: rest. Indeed, put to rest for a period equivalent to the time of stress, the mice have “rejuvenated”.
A discovery that can allow you not to feel guilty during moments of relaxation!
