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Stress Speeds up Your Biological Life Clock (and Chilling Out Slows it Down)
Ok, so what do you mean by “Biological Life Clock”?
There’s different ways to measure biological age (how much your body has aged) in comparison to chronological age (how old you are in years). Some of these involve tracking DNA changes over time. And these seem to be most accurate.
Right, so this is what these researchers were measuring?
Zachary Harvanek at al. from Yale University took blood samples from 444 volunteers and tracked changes over time and conducted various questionnaires to measure stress and resilience. They measured multiple health markers but notably the suitably named DNA clock called “GrimAge”.
Really - “GrimAge”?
Yes, really. I keep telling you scientists do have a sense of humour!
And what did they find?
Well, they found that stress accelerates ageing and conversely that chilling out can slow it down.
And that’s it?!
Well, it is probably no surprise is it? But it is important to have (more) solid evidence to back this up. However, they also noted that it didn’t accelerate ageing in all people.
