A new study has suggested while stress in the body accelerates ageing, there is a way to reverse this process.
The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, notes that stressful situations for the body - like undergoing surgery, having COVID or being pregnant - accelerate the rate of aging.
However it also showed that this can be reversed.
Luke O'Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, told The Pat Kenny Show how this has been proven.
"We know stress is a bad thing, don't we, and there has been evidence before that it you're stressed you age a bit more quickly", he said.
"Now this study really confirms that.
"Pregnancy, interestingly, was one - that ages a woman.
"PTSD is a big one, serious surgery and COVID: so severe COVID speeds up the ageing process.
"It's all about your biological age versus your chronological age".
'Chemical marks'
Prof O'Neill said it is about more than just grey hairs on your head.
"They can measure what's called epigenetic change," he said.
"What that means is as you get older, your DNA changes - it gets stained with chemical marks.
"That increases as you age... if that speeds up, that means your biological age is increasing.
"They've very precise measurements on this".
'Destressing'
Prof O'Neill explained why it is important to manage your stress.
"The most important part of this study is [that] it can be reversed," he said.
"If you've been through a traumatic incident, there's evidence you've aged more quickly.
"If you can then relax a bit, and destress after the incident, you can reverse this and clean the DNA.
"The marks come off the DNA again and you can reverse this increased ageing.
"We know that destressing is so important, but this kind of confirms this in a biochemical way.
"It's all about handling stress: even if you're in a stressful situation, if you can calm down [and] control your response to it this ageing process won't be quite so rapid," he added.
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