Stress doesn’t only make you look older; it ages your genes as well!
Dr. Halit Yerebakan
Do you find yourself older in your reflection at the mirror or the look in your photos? Or, have you ever thought that someone you know gets older in the photos, particularly in the chronological ones that demonstrate their life before and after a highly demanding job that they are doing? For an example, this even could be a politician or a company director. Have you ever wondered why these people appear much older in the later photo although the difference doesn’t correlate with calendar? The stress of the job or its’ life style is believed to contribute in the premature aging appearance. If you are the one out in those photos, you might have thought of running away from the reasons in the background that contributes your aged appearance, especially stress. But, hey… Stress is everywhere! Even when you feel relaxed, your body continues to be under stress, and this time the biological one! The baseline biological stress is the one that contributes to aging the most and rapid.
On the other hand, too much stress overrides your basal biological reactions, which are useful, into damaging overreactions. Although this is a conclusion, we are still far away from understanding all the pathways of stress resulting in these outcomes. The major pathway that demonstrates the effect of stress on aging is over-release of stress hormones to the blood stream. Over time, stress overload can cause a chronic imbalance of stress hormones that can lead to aging in the long-term, but fast! Stress hormones target your blood vessels and your heart, mostly, and prolonged stress decreases your body’s ability to control the cardiovascular system and moderate its re...
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...d if we do not drink enough water. Symptoms of stress and dehydration are very similar in general. Dehydration and stress both cause tachycardia (increased heart rate), nausea, fatigue and headache. Go for water instead of soft drinks or alcohol, those that also have withdrawal effects (another stress type). Oxygen is the most important but last remembered nutrient for your body. Just because you do not feel it doesn’t mean that you should look for it. Have experienced or heard of psychotherapy sessions where the patients are asked to take deep breaths? I am sure you have. Breathing smart helps reduce stress, treat depression and anxiety, clears up your mind, even under normal circumstances it helps you calm down right? Yes, because you brain is the major oxygen user in your body! These are why you should be eating and drinking well, as well as breathing smart.
Therefore, prolonged stress included adverse psychological and physical health effects as well as the increased risk of premature death (Denollet, J., et al.
An individual’s personality and character structure portrays a major reflection of how they age. Personality style and character structure both incorporate the conscious and unconscious motivational, cognitive and affective mental states, as well as defense mechanisms (Silver 1992). Biopsychosocial factors-broken down into biological, psychological, and sociocultural-also play a huge role in personality and aging (Notes 10/08). Some examples of biological factors are health, genetics, and physiological function. Thoughts, feelings, and emotions would be considered psychological factors. Sociocultural factors include family, religion and community. Additionally, people endure unique experiences and circumstances throughout their life course,
To a great extent, stress can be a helpful response, especially for prehistoric humans. During this era, our species needed to react quickly to outside stimuli through a response of “fight or flight”. Through stress, certain hormones are released to help the individual resist the stressor, which may have meant running away from a natural predator. Thus, stress is a positive response that ensures the survival of the species. However, stress over a prolonged period of time causes exhaustion in the individual. Consequently, although stress can be helpful for individuals today, many often experience chronic stress, inflicting varying degrees of damage to their bodies.
Aging affects every individual and is inevitable, despite our valiant attempts to prevent it. The aging process beings the moment of conception however some can argue it begins at birth. The process of aging is heavily impacted by health, genetics and environmental factors. As people age we have to become accustom to the changes associated with life. The question becomes what changes happen and how? Although we cannot predict what will happen to us we can work to prevent specific things from happening by living healthier lives.
Everyone everywhere has experienced stress with something they have dealt with in life. Whether it is school, paying bills, managing a busy schedule or work, stress affects everyone. Although everyone experiences stress, many people don’t actually know what stress is. Stress is the physical response of the body to harmful situations that threaten someone’s well being. When someone says “stress”, the word is automatically associated with a negative effect on people but small doses of stress can benefit a person, if used to correctly. Everyone’s stress level is different and the amount of stress that can be handled varies from person to person but a stress overload will not benefit anyone. “When you feel threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in your body to allow you to act in a way to prevent injury” (“Stress Management Health Center”). The chemical that is released when stressed is known as cortisol, also known a stress hormone. “Cortisol is like a long-term form of adrenaline, produced in the adrenal gland when the body is under pressure” (“The Effects of Stress on Your Reproductive Health and Fertility”). Adrenaline is also released to send the body into, what is known as, emergency action (“Stress Symptoms, Signs and Causes”). This emergency action speeds up reactions preformed by the body and the mind. This is a way of protecting the body. While in emergency action, this stress caused by threatening situations can save your life. In emergency situations, you are given “extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on your brakes to avoid a car accident” (“Stress Management Health Center”). Signs of being in this emergency action are a racing heart, blood pressure rises, quickening of breath and tigh...
Aging occurs in every species. Over time a change occurs on a cellular level in a person’s body, which causes degenerative effects on the brain, muscles, organs, bones, hormones, and DNA. In 1991, the book Evolutionary Biology of Aging, offered the following definition of aging: a persistent decline in the age-specific fitness components of an organism due to internal physiological deterioration.1 Aging affects the body physically and mentally. Many people dread getting older due to the numerous changes the body goes through. The geriatric population experiences many pains and is inflicted with various diseases. There are a few who are lucky enough to not get diagnosed with a life altering disease, such as Alzheimer’s, type II diabetes, high blood pressure, macular degeneration, or some form of cancer. Studies have shown that genetics play a vital role in the aging process.
Stress means different things to different people and stress effects people in different ways. Some people think stress is something that happens to them such as an injury or a promotion and others think that stress is what happens to our mind, body and behaviors in response to an event. While stress does involve events and how one responds to them these are not the critical factors, but our thoughts about the situation in which we are involved are the critical factors. Essentially, stress exists whenever homeostasis is disturbed or cannot be maintained (Stress and the Social System Course Guide, 2013). Homeostasis refers to the body's ability to keep the internal chemical and physical environments constant. As your body begins to react to stress several changes occur. These changes include increased heart rate, blood pressure and secretion of stimulatory hormones. Ones body prepares itself in stressful situations to either stand ground and fight or to flee from the situation. Walter Cannon called this stressful reaction the fight-or-flight response (Greenberg, 2012).
Chicago Harry Okeke Psych 236-02: Psychology of Women Prof. Edna Pressler, Ph.D. Report 1 October 6, 2016. “Get involved 2.4 “Media Advertisement and Double Standard of Aging” Ageing is something that everyone will eventually experience if they are fortunate to live a long life. The process of ageing comes with various negative and positive outlooks. In western culture, ageing for both genders is particularly condemned. In the media in particular, the process of ageing for men and women varies greatly.
SÍTAR, M.E., YANAR, K., AYDIN, S. and ÇAKATAY, U., CURRENT ASPECTS OF AGEING THEORIES AND CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO MECHANISMS. .
In modern days societies, stress is commonly known as our bodies being overwhelmed. Because majority of the people living in this world go to bed every single night with deadlines in their mind, bills to pay, appointments to attend, files they need to create, presentations, meetings, interviews, commute and so many likes, it is very easy to compel our bodies to become heavily exposed with stress. It’s reasonable to think stress as bein...
(AC 1) Stress is defined as the state when people are experiencing difficulties in coping with the situations they are in due to the lacking of abilities or knowledge to handle them (Anxiety UK, ND). These situations are often referred as stressors. The way how individuals are reacting to these stressors is referred as stress response.
...worse than before. For instance, old men and women inject their faces to resemble those in their youth, but they worsen their mental and physical state by executing such actions. To conclude, one should embrace her appearance because aging is inevitable.
Stress is “the body’s reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment or response.” Many people realize that stress has a great impact on psychological health; however, they do not realize that physical health can be compromised as well. When the body is put under stress, physiological changes take place, such as increased heart rate or blood pressure. Many individuals do not know the extent to which stress can impact their bodies because they cannot see the changes taking place. If stress is prolonged, physical symptoms may begin to arise. These symptoms are real; however, they may or may not be due to some sort of physical disorder. Stress-induced anxiety may begin to form within the individual because of a constant fear that they have a serious medical condition. The cycle will repeat itself with potentially worsening symptoms.
“Do not try to live forever, you will not succeed” (George Bernard Shaw). Life has finite limits, no one can live forever, but, someone can make an impact in your life or in millions of people's’ lives. In today’s society, everyone is living to old age. They are staying healthier longer due to better basic development forces, such as biological, psychological, socioeconomic and life-cycle forces that interact in a complex way. Some people are not so lucky, as they might develop dementia, Alzheimer's or a different disease causing them to age faster in a way that they won’t be able to do some of the activities they have been doing. Physical attractiveness is threatening with old age. As you age, wrinkles will form, skin will lose its elasticity,
Hypertension: this occurs under high stress levels and increase the body’s risk of having a stroke, heart attack or kidney failure. The burnout phase of stress can contribute to a permanent high blood pressure.