FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
According to an American study, the presence of stressful people in your life is associated with faster biological aging. Forced closeness, especially with family, seems to exacerbate this effect.
You know that coworker you see every day of the week? The one who never tires of telling his romantic dramas, who monopolizes the conversation during lunch breaks, and who expects sympathetic comments from you on the same topics every day? Or what about your father, who calls you several times a week with technical questions, then starts criticizing your lifestyle while waiting for you to schedule his doctor's appointments?
A new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms what many of us have long suspected: these people can age you faster.
While nurturing healthy social relationships is actually positive for your health (mortality increases with feelings of loneliness), the authors of this American study show that “having more annoying people is associated with accelerated biological aging.”
The key word here is “associate.” A higher number of annoying and quarrelsome people, meaning people who cause you stress, was observed among study participants who also showed accelerated biological aging. This does not prove that these energy-draining people are the cause of your aging.
More annoying people – even faster aging
However, the researchers found that there is a cumulative effect: the more regularly you interact with these energy-draining people, the worse the situation becomes. Each of these factors was associated with an average acceleration of the aging process by 1.5%. This means that your body would age 1,015 biological years in a single calendar year.
Doesn't that sound like a lot? Over a 10-year period, this rate translates to almost two additional months of biological aging for every difficult person you have to deal with.
One reason may be that spending time with difficult people has effects similar to those of traditional stressors, such as financial problems or work-related stress, the authors explain. These stressors contribute to an increased risk of cardiovascular and other diseases, decreased immune function, and increased inflammation in the body.
Women are more likely than men to report having difficult people in their social circle. For the study, researchers collected saliva samples from 2,345 participants in the US state of Indiana and then analyzed their DNA for markers of biological aging. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 103. As part of the survey, they also answered questions about their social relationships and described their overall health.
It turns out that women were more likely than men to report having unpleasant people in their extended social circle (although it is unclear whether these people were more often men or women). People who were in poor health to begin with, as well as those who had a difficult childhood, were also more likely to report dealing with unpleasant people.
And who are these unpleasant people? They are most numerous among those from whom there is no escape. Study participants reported a higher percentage of unpleasant people among their colleagues or roommates. Those who have experienced this personally can attest to this: working, or even living, with an unpleasant person is especially stressful.
Not all bullies are the same.
But this connection is true in general, and not just with roommates: people who regularly have to deal with unpleasant people age faster. This biological process means that your body accumulates unrepaired molecular damage, leading to a decline in various bodily functions and a greater susceptibility to disease and injury. Aging is not for the faint of heart.
Faster biological aging "also reliably predicts critical health outcomes, including chronic diseases and mortality risk," the study notes.
The study also shows that some annoying people are more strongly associated with accelerated biological aging than others. As expected, annoying family members (e.g., mother, father, sister, brother) have a stronger impact on our accelerated aging than annoying people who are not your relatives.
But there is one exception: the researchers found no significant link between accelerated biological aging and a spouse described as annoying. So an annoying husband or wife doesn't seem to make you go gray faster. A small consolation./DW
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