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Continual Stress Leads to Premature Aging and Death

Overview

Continual stress (repetitive stress for a long duration) creates effects that linger with us and cause serious health problems years later. Medical researchers have observed that continual stress sensitizes the body’s stress system (makes it more responsive to stress) – meaning the system over-responds to new stressors. Through this process, after one is sensitized by a stressful experience, a small amount of stress down the road causes the body to repeat the same weakening biochemical response as in the original incident. This results in small problems producing large surges of stress hormones.

As cortisol remains in the bloodstream (a condition termed high, flat-level cortisol), it increases the amount of inflammatory proteins in the body (a biomarker for pre-mature, deadly heart attacks – see “The Six Ways Stress Triggers Heart Fatalities” - Inflammation of Arteries).

How Continual Stress Leads to Addictions

Researchers have also noticed that when the individual resorts to drugs (alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, etc.) or smoking, overeating, they can also sensitize the body’s stress response, as continual stress has been shown in clinical research of laboratory animals to stimulate the self-administration of more drugs.

Continual Stress Also Affects Behavior Patterns

Other clinical experiments have revealed that the continual secretion of stress hormones can literally decrease brain connections and the amount of brain cells in critical areas. This loss of neural connections and brain cells can then lead to additional non-productive responses to stress.

In addition, research evidence shows repeated release of stress hormone produces hyperactivity in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal system, disrupting normal levels of serotonin, a biochemical that is responsible for feelings of well being. In this way, continual stress reduces our quality of life by lowering feelings of pleasure and accomplishment, and threatening relationships.

Some Types of Stress Are More Deadly

Certain kinds of stress appear to be more damaging than others, meaning they actually lead to diseases. Unpredictable and uncontrollable stresses appear to be the worst in this category with dire consequences to our physical and mental well being. Continual stress of these types leads to heart disease, high blood pressure, suppressed thyroid function, decreased bone density and addiction problems. continual stress has also been linked (through medical studies) with the onset of insulin resistance, where the body is unable to process insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Insulin resistance is a primary factor in type 2 diabetes and is part of metabolic syndrome, an established precursor to strokes and fatal heart attacks.

Stress and Hair Loss

Extreme emotional or physical stress can lead to hair loss. The most commonly occurring kind of stress-induced hair loss is telogen effluvium. In this condition, severe stress causes large numbers of hairs to stop their growing phase and shift into a resting phase. In a period of two to three months the resting-phase hairs begin to fall out. Usually, the hair grows back in six to nine months.

Continual Stress May Make You Age Faster

A study reported to American Psychological Association's 2006 convention by the University of California, San Francisco's psychiatry department on Chronic Stress and Hormonal Shifts Linked to Aging shows that continual stress does cause significant hormonal changes that speed up aging.

Prolonged stress also causes biological changes to take place in telomeres (located at the ends of chromosomes), which prevent “shredding” of the DNA. Shredding of telomeres advances the aging process 9-17 years! 

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Sources: Stress and the Skin International Journal of Cosmetic Science 28(4):243-246, August 2006 Telomere Dysfunction in Aging and Cancer The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology 2005 May;37(5):1000-13 Telomeres and Aging Physiological Reviews 2008 Apr;88(2):557-79 Stress and Drug Abuse National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/apr2002/040802nidanewsscan.pdf) Decreased Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Sensitivity to Cortisol Feedback Inhibition in Human Aging Neuroendocrinology 1997 Jan;65(1):79-90

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