While we’re aware our lifestyle choices contribute to how we feel and view the world, stress and its impacts are often ignored or underestimated.
Although stress remains a part of life and in small doses boosts productivity amongst a few other minor benefits, the science behind chronic stress confirms we’re setting ourselves up for early aging and other health catastrophes.
Let’s look at five ways stress gets the better of you as it takes the reigns of natural aging and throws the already unpredictable process into overdrive.
Job & Career Stress
Work is one of the most common sources of stress contributing to the way you look. Being constantly overworked can lead to damaged DNA cells.
DNA sections or telomeres can be measured to determine just how much work stress and exhaustion one’s experiencing. Science suggests that those continually enduring high-stress levels have shorter telomeres – leading to damaged cells and can contribute to a range of diseases.
The Presumption & Expectations of Stress
Cellular aging can also be heavily influenced by even just predetermining or assuming a stressful or anxious situation may present itself.
Anticipating and overthinking a particular future possibility of something being stressful has roughly the same effect as experiencing actual stress. If this sounds like you, your best solution starts with practising mindfulness and ridding yourself of unnecessary worry.
Stress hurts your brain.
All kinds of stress have been shown to contribute to an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Many women will experience aging of the brain at an early life stage than a lot of men too.
The progression of gene processes have been found to occur faster in females as our brains age from stress.
It accelerates the loss of sight and hearing.
Repeated spikes in adrenaline and other stress hormones can affect your senses as well. Your vision and hearing may be temporarily lost due to long term stress as well as changing the way we behave.
Stress is also a driving force behind high blood pressure problems and is detrimental to the blood vessels contributing to all kinds of cardiovascular health issues.
By exacerbating bad habits or an unconventional lifestyle
It’s no surprise that leading fast-paced, high-stress lives leaves you a little short for time. But such a lifestyle can send people down a self-destructive path of terrible eating habits, lack of exercise, and even experimenting with alcohol or engaging in substance abuse.
All of these things are the makeup of a potentially vicious blend of health problems and unsavoury decisions that’s easy to be trapped by.
Stress ultimately leads to people becoming demotivated towards taking care of themselves, which one day will inevitably show through externally and may even reflect their future life attitude.
The lesson? You can slow the signs, feelings and presentation of the aging process by working on revitalising your lifestyle and making it a priority.
Altering a few habits could very well be the best thing for you. If you are incorporating a plan with a range of quality, anti-aging products might really be worth your while.
