How YOU can reverse your biological age in DAYS simply by becoming less stressed, according to a Harvard study
Some people may fear that the stresses of everyday life are aging them prematurely.
But good news for those looking to turn back time: Being less stressed can reduce your biological age in just a few days, a study suggests.
While chronological age is the number of years you live, biological age refers to how old your cells and tissues are based on their current state.
If you are particularly healthy and fit, your biological age may be less than your chronological age.
But if you’re sedentary, chronically ill, or in poor physical condition, your biological age may be higher, meaning you’re at greater risk of illness and living a shorter life.
Being less stressed can reduce your biological age in just a few days, a study suggests (stock image)
It has already been documented that our biological age increases rapidly in response to stress.
But new research indicates that this damage can be reversed in just a few days or months when you feel more relaxed.
Dr. Vadim Gladyshev, of Harvard Medical School, is part of a team that wanted to investigate how biological age can be changed.
“Despite widespread recognition that biological age is at least one malleable, the extent to which biological age undergoes reversible changes throughout life and the events that trigger such changes remain unknown,” he said.
His team, along with scientists at Duke University School of Medicine, measured changes in biological age in humans and mice in response to various stressful situations.
Real-life scenarios that can cause this kind of stress include major surgery, pregnancy, or serious illness.
Although biological age rose relatively quickly in response to stress, it also dropped back to baseline after recovery from the stressful event.
Write in the journal Cell Metabolismsaid the researchers: ‘This study shows that the biological age of humans and mice is neither static nor steadily increasing, but undergoes reversible changes over relatively short time periods ranging from days to months.
‘A clear pattern that emerged over the course of our studies is that exposure to stress increased biological age.
‘Once the stress was gone, the biological age could be fully or partially restored.
“In the most fundamental sense, our data revealed the dynamic nature of biological age – stress can cause a rapid increase in biological age, which can be reversed.”
A separate study recently showed that cutting calories can help reduce the rate at which people age biologically.
People who reduced their calorie intake by 25 percent over two years grew old two to three percent slower than people who continued to eat normally.
This is linked to a 10 to 15 percent lower risk of premature death, the researchers said — about the same number seen in studies in which people quit smoking.