It’s normal to feel stressed every now and then, but chronic stress can cause health issues like anxiety, high blood pressure and even heart attacks.
But the effects don’t stop there. On a recent episode of 10% Happier with Dan Harris, Elissa Epel, author of “The Stress Prescription,” and expert on well-being and aging, shared how chronic stress can affect your cellular health and accelerate aging.
“As my guest today says, your cells are listening to your life, and if you tweak your life, your cells will respond accordingly,” said Harris.
In each cell within the body, chromosomes “have protective caps at the tips, and these are called telomeres,” Epel said on the podcast.
“They don’t like stress, and stress is a threat to them because it might damage our DNA and create all sorts of biological problems.”
When we go on for years and years, or decades, without managing stress well, without breaks, this accelerates the rate of aging.
Elissa Epel
International expert on stress and aging, Author of “The Stress Prescription”
Telomeres naturally shrink with age, but that process is accelerated even more quickly when people stress often, she explained.
“Chronic stress, when we go on for years and years, or decades, without managing stress well, without breaks, this accelerates the rate of aging,” Epel said.
“Now that we know that we have telomeres in every cell, and that they’re listening to our thoughts, our feelings, they’re responsive to our lifestyle, this helps compel us to take care of them.”
Here are a few practices Epel recommends adding to your daily routine to lower stress levels.
4 ways to de-stress and live a longer, healthier life
Avoiding stress can be difficult considering challenges we’re facing globally, Epel said. But the good news is that damage done to telomeres as a result of chronic stress can be reversed.
“We can, on a daily basis, restore. Restore our cells, give ourselves breaks, create an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, so that we are slowing our aging. Or at least not letting all of the stressors we’re exposed to, get under the skin, into our cells and accelerate aging,” she said.
Here are some ways that she says you can de-stress and positively impact telomeres:
- Eat more fruits and vegetables
- Create a meditative state by taking short breaks daily, even if it’s just five minutes or through meditation
- Add more more Omega-3s to your diet or trying a Mediterranean diet
- Prioritize deep rest with practices like being in a flow state through yoga or breathwork
“It’s these small changes that we can make, they’re not huge lifestyle changes,” Epel said.
“Those are the changes that we can maintain and keep over years and years.”
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