Aging is the process of irreversible destruction of useful cells. Everyday, our body rebuilds itself by excreting dead cells and building new ones. This is an automatic process, which consumes energy from the food intake. Stress accelerates this process by active and passive influence on rebuilding the cells.

Do you know?

Continuous submission to stress can diminish you life span by 50%.

What is stress?

Stress is the natural response of the body to meet physical or mental demands from our environment. Stress turns on the danger mode in our body. This is quite essential for a successful life. When properly used, it can be a very useful tool.

First serious study in this field was by Dr. Hans Selye. It was in late 1950s that Dr. Selye identified a mind – body connection of stress in his patients. Researches indicate that rats show a similar response to stress as humans. This response of the body is called General Adaption Syndrome.

Technically, stress and distress are different. A prolonged case of emotional stress lacking a positive response is called distress. Distress is the most threatening form of stress.

How does it work?

Aging process is directly linked with the immunity of our body. A non responsive or under responsive immune system will invite a lot of diseases. A prolonged course of stress can seriously disable our immunity. Under stress, adrenal glands produce stress hormones. These hormones initiate the production of free radicals in our body. As free radicals increase the risk of illness will be inflated.

Effects on our body

As stress provides both physical and mental acceleration, the side effects can also be divided as physical or mental. It can have direct or indirect impact on our body. Direct physical impact can be depression or dizziness. In its indirect physical impact, stress may lead to other diseases like heart problem or a high blood pressure.

Depression is a mental and physical abnormality. In its indirect mental impact, stress will switch on the self destruction mode. For example, a failure in exam, loss of job, divorce, family problems etc may lead to alcoholism, smoking (together, these two habits can lead you to a number of life threatening diseases), comfort eating and even suicide.

Other risks

Stress can increase the risk of cancer. It also accelerates the progression of cancer cells. There are a number of researches proving the direct connection between stress and cancer. Apart from regular medication, cancer patients undergo specific treatments to control and maintain the stress level.

One of the main victims of stress is sleep. Under stress, a comfortable sleep is impossible. Continuous interruption in sleep seriously undermines longevity.