Stress can age your brain, but it’s not irreversible
There’s been quite a lot in the news lately about calculating one’s “biological age” – not how many birthdays you’ve had, but how old your body is based on exercise, dietary habits, sleep patterns, alcohol and drug consumption and emotional well-being. One of the big factors in biological age, though, is stress.
As a private patient advocate, I’m often called in when there’s a stressful situation with clients and their families. Perhaps there’s been a diagnosis of dementia, or mom needed emergency surgery to repair a broken hip and faces a long rehab. When scientists studied people with these types of experiences, they found that the biomarkers of aging, which can be detected with a blood test, increased markedly –advancing the patient’s biological age.
There was good news, too. The study showed that, although severe stress events can trigger an increase in biological age, biological age can return to the pre-stress level if the stress is short-lived.
Short-lived. That’s the key.
I’ve written before about how stress arises from that “flight or fight” response that kept our ancestors alive. Your heart beats faster, your pupils dilate and your breathing becomes more rapid to prepare your body for what dangers lie ahead.
Situational stress – like a close call on the highway – usually subsides quickly. Problems can arise, though, when your mind and body are faced with chronic stress, or respond in a stressful way even though the stressors themselves have subsided. Researchers have begun calling this the “toxic stress load,” or TSL, and it’s becoming more prevalent, especially among adolescents because of social media use. Race, gender identity and economic status can also play a huge role in TSL.
“At any rate, regardless of your labels and identities, which might confer disadvantages or privileges, every day, you will encounter many mental, physical and social challenges that you will have to overcome in order to thrive,” write Tamen Jadad-Garcia and Dr. Alex Jadad in their 2023 book, “Healthy No Matter What: How Humans Are Hardwired to Adapt.”
Some challenges can be immediately recognized and tackled. “But it’s how you deal with them that makes the difference between a long and healthy life, and one that is cut short.”
There are tried-and-true methods of taking care of yourself and dealing with stress:
- Any kind of activity or exercise, even walking the dog, relieves stress and pumps up those feel-good endorphins.
- Sleep is so important. A good night’s sleep helps your brain rid itself of toxins; conversely, sleeping poorly or not enough doesn’t give the brain the opportunity to heal itself.
- Diet plays a huge role; eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts.
- Avoiding unhealthy habits is critical. These include excessive drinking, smoking and drug use.
- Socializing and laughing are also good for stress. (What’s your favorite funny movie? When was the last time you watched it?)
Meditation, mindfulness and yoga have also been found effective at relieving stress and helping our brains. Research has found that just eight weeks of guided mindfulness meditation, for example, can increase the volume of the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with short-term memory and emotion.
Conversely, chronic stress is not good for our biological age or brains. It potentially shortens one’s life because of its physical effects (stroke, heart disease), and may actually rewire the brain in ways that could lead eventually to Alzheimer’s, according to new research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute.
We can also rewire our brains in a positive manner, making them more resilient.
I’ve been thinking a lot about stress lately after a year of life changes and listening to a podcast by Dr. Lee Warren, a neurobiologist. We each have some 20,000 genes that we inherited from our parents, he says, but they interact, create proteins and switch on and off in different ways. So, along with them may come encoded reactions to stressors like trauma, which can persist for generations. For example, children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and PTSD sufferers have different reactions to trauma than those without such backgrounds.
Genes alone, though, don’t determine destiny. By harnessing the power of our mind, body and spirit, Warren tells us we can create new “mental superhighways” that detour around those encoded reactions and thought processes.
It takes work, but we can choose to reduce our stress levels, slow down biological and brain aging -- and perhaps even extend our lives. I’m game. Are you?
• Teri Dreher is a board-certified patient advocate. A critical care nurse for 30+ years, she is founder of NShore Patient Advocates (www.NorthShoreRN.com). Her book, “How to Be a Healthcare Advocate for Yourself & Your Loved Ones,” is available on Amazon. She is offering a free phone consultation to Daily Herald readers; call her at (312) 788-2640 or email teri@northshorern.com.