While “stress” has frequently been identified as an important factor in accelerated aging, I wonder if they’ve developed a way to precisely measure and track this over the long term, if they’ve identified the mechanisms (is it just cortisol and glucocorticoids, or much more), and if they have a good idea of the dose/response relationship and how long the impact persists… either without treatment, or via different treatments.
And while this study looks more at sudden high stress / trauma events (like surgery), I wonder how this compares to long-term stresses - e.g. high stress jobs, or even living in dangerous areas (e.g Ukraine now, or bad parts of Chicago or other high crime neighborhoods) or ongoing issues like family poverty, or even loneliness, or mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, which also probably cause higher stress levels.
Seems like one day we may all want to wear a Fitbit like device that measures our ongoing stress levels of days and weeks and months, perhaps via GSR (galvanic skin response) and HRV (heart rate variability)…
It would be interesting to to “multi-omic” biological age measures on people prior to high stress situations, after high stress situations (e.g. after the war in Ukraine), and then test results with several months of rapamycin use…
Here is a new study out of Harvard, and with Steve Horvath’s participation:
We report that severe stress triggers transient increases in biological age in mice and humans.
Together, these data show that biological age undergoes a rapid increase in response to diverse forms of stress, which is reversed following recovery from stress. Our study uncovers a new layer of aging dynamics that should be considered in future studies. Elevation of biological age by stress may be a quantifiable and actionable target for future interventions.
Full Paper Here:
2022.05.04.490686v1.full.pdf (2.3 MB)