2023-04-28 14:00:50
About the episode
When we talk about our age, it is usually about our age in the number of birthdays celebrated. But lifestyle and health can cause a young person to have a biologically older body and vice versa.
This biological age is determined by looking at markers in our DNA that say something about, well, the decay of our bodies. Now new research suggests that stress has a negative influence on this, but that this can also be partly reversed.
The study looked at the DNA of people who went through three different stressful experiences. They saw that the biological age of a small group of patients shot up after acute hip surgery, but that they recovered after a week.
They saw the biological age of female patients who ended up in hospital with serious covid complaints after they were allowed to go home, but they did not immediately see this happen in men who were admitted for the same reason.
The DNA of more than 200 pregnant women was also examined. During pregnancy, the biological age increased, but six weeks after giving birth it had fallen back on average to what it was at the beginning of the pregnancy.
The results are in line with previous studies, which have shown, among other things, that gray hair can regain its color in some cases after someone recovers from an impactful event such as a divorce.
Although some recovery is therefore possible, researchers who did not participate in this study warn that the overall trend will not change. Nevertheless, the researchers of this study hope that it opens the way for a possible treatment that can give the biological age an extra push down.
Read more about the research here: Stress makes us age faster but the effects can be reversed.
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