How stress makes the body age and what to do about it, Yale scientists have revealed

Not so long ago, a group of scientists from Yale University found out that increased stress causes a tangible blow to the body and human life expectancy. Is it really so serious and should stress be feared like fire?

EMC clinical psychologist

Stress plays an important role in the process of adapting to a changing world.

What do scientists think?

Researchers from Yale University have confirmed that stress has a negative impact on mental and physical health. For example, prolonged emotional stress increases the risk of heart disease, addictions, mood swings and post-traumatic stress disorder. It can also affect metabolism, triggering overweight and even diabetes. Not to mention, stress prevents us from controlling our emotions and thinking clearly.

To find out if stress really does accelerate aging, scientists from Yale conducted a study of 444 people aged 19-50. Participants took a blood test that tracks age-related changes and answered several questions to determine their stress levels. After making adjustments for demographic and behavioral characteristics (bad habits, body weight, race, income level), the scientists were still convinced that those who were more stressed had more pronounced effects of aging. This includes insulin resistance.

How can stress be beneficial?

Valeria: Stress is necessary for a person as an adaptation mechanism. To overcome any unfamiliar situation, to cope with emergency conditions, we activate spare reserves. It manifests itself in the following ways:

• heart rate increases;
• the respiratory rate increases;
• mobilize all muscles and organs that read information from the outside world: sight, hearing, smell, tactile sensations.

The brain, in the course of evolution, has formed a department that is responsible for social communication. Today, each of us holds in his hand a source of information, and not always positive. Often many people do not know what hygiene of incoming data is. And it is they, colored by different meanings, that become the sources of the greatest stress.

How to deal with stress?

Regulation of emotions, like the skill of social communication, should be formed in families, supported in educational institutions. But nowadays, self-help during stress is usually learned from a psychotherapist or psychologist in the office.

Today there are many approaches in psychotherapy that help and teach proper emotional response. Prominent representatives are mindfulness techniques and emotionally focused psychotherapy.