Stress can add years to your biological age

The daily worries about work, family, and our own health can lead to an increase in stress, which can be noticeable and affect our quality of life in the long term.

In this regard, a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism confirms that the biological age of humans and mice undergoes a rapid increase in response to various forms of stress, which returns after recovery from stress.

These changes occur in relatively short periods of days or months. “This finding of fluid, fluid, and changeable age challenges the longstanding concept of a unidirectional ascending trajectory of biological age throughout life,” says study co-author James White of Duke University School of Medicine.

Following White’s explanation, previous reports have hinted at the possibility of short-term fluctuations in biological age.

The difference between biological and chronological age

It is believed that the biological age of organisms is constantly increasing throughout life, but it is now clear that biological age is not inextricably linked with chronological age. People may be biologically older or younger than their chronological age suggests.

In addition, a growing body of evidence in animal and human models indicates that Biological age can be affected by diseases, pharmacological treatments, lifestyle changes and environmental exposure, among other factors.

“Despite the widespread recognition that biological age is at least somewhat malleable, the extent to which biological age undergoes reversible changes throughout life, and the events that cause such changes, is unknown,” says study co-author Vadim Gladyshev. from Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Harvard Medical School.

To fill this knowledge gap, the researchers used the power of the DNA methylation clock, which was updated based on the observation that methylation levels in different regions of the genome change in a predictable way over time in chronological age.

The results showed that biological age can increase over relatively short periods of time in response to stress. but this increase is temporary and tends to return to baseline after recovery from stress.

“The increase in biological age after exposure to aged blood is consistent with previous reports of deleterious age-related changes. in heterochronous blood exchange procedures,” says first author Jesse Poganik of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.