Table of Contents
ToggleReclaiming Youth: Discover the Secrets to Reverse Your Biological Age with New Study Findings
The clock on your biological age is ticking, but this study demonstrates how to slow it down or even reverse it. According to a recent study from Harvard Medical School and Duke University School of Medicine, humans can effectively age less after recovering from stressful experiences. The ground-breaking study demonstrates that while stress can physiologically age a person dramatically, the body can naturally reverse this effect, decreasing your risk of dying.
Your biological age is determined by how much of a change in your DNA has occurred as a result of a process called methylation, as opposed to your chronological age, which is the number of years you have been alive. Disease, lifestyle, and environmental factors are all influences on your biological age. It has also been discovered that stress, whether it be mental or physical, rapidly ages a biological clock.
ALSO READ: The Cholesterol Challenge: How Long Does it Take to Lower Cholesterol?
What Does This Study Discover?
According to the researchers, the fact that biological age is “fluid, fluctuating, and malleable” calls into question the prevailing wisdom that it can only increase, similar to chronological age. This study is the first to investigate whether human aging is reversible. Researchers questioned the idea that methylation levels alter consistently over time, contradicting the idea that a person’s biological age is mostly dictated by their chronological age.
Human subjects’ methylation levels were assessed after COVID-19-severe instances, pregnancy, and surgery. Given the increased susceptibility to diseases connected to stress, severe stress has previously been linked to greater mortality rates as biological age increases.
The latest research demonstrates that reversing your biological age can similarly reduce mortality. Dr. Vadim Gladyshev, a co-senior author of the study, says that this raises the possibility that “the ability to bounce back from stress may be a key indicator of successful aging and longevity” — or, more specifically, how well we age and may even influence longevity. The study’s findings imply that your biological age may now potentially serve as a valuable indicator of your stress levels and your level of recovery.
The study raises the possibility of reversing our aging below the recovery baseline because it demonstrates that this reversal can occur naturally in our bodies.
How stressed you truly need to be before your biological age accelerates and you need to slow it down again is one of the main themes the researchers are pursuing. Additionally, it’s still not apparent if we can slow down accelerated aging over a longer time frame.
How Do We Help Ourselves to Recover From Stress?
A combination of physical and mental rest is essential to recovery, and if either is lacking, the other would be constrained, even though the study did not explore whether recovery must be active or passive. Healing is primarily a passive process, but that it also has a mental component that some people may need further support with.
People can assume “you must be better” if you walk again after surgery, for instance, but it’s crucial to pay attention to the psychological side of rehabilitation. The findings also revealed considerable variation, which raises the possibility that some individuals may recover more quickly than others.
Aging is impacted by life events like trauma and other significant stresses. Both one’s emotional and physical health suffer from trauma. No of one’s age, the effects of illness, surgery, and other traumatic events have an impact on how they feel and how they manage life. When faced with obstacles and problems, people in their twenties may feel older. It does catch up physically and speeds up aging if a person doesn’t make time to heal and move through those traumas.
The following activities are suggested to help reduce stress or trauma-induced stress:
Exercise – Being physically active can help with emotional health. Ten minutes of stretching, dancing, or other exercise can be beneficial.
Meditate – Sit quietly for ten minutes while meditating, concentrating on your breath. As you inhale and exhale, pay close attention to how each breath feels. Bring your attention back to your breath if you notice that your thoughts are straying.
Practice Gratitude – Write down three to five things each day for which you are grateful as a practice of gratitude. As you carry on doing this, you might find that you have more optimism throughout the day and are constantly on the lookout for happiness.
Be social – Spend time joking around and getting together with friends. A sense of belonging and purpose in life can be found in developing relationships.
Take Care of Yourself – The keys to a healthy life are exercise, a balanced diet, avoiding alcohol, and utilizing tobacco products.
ALSO READ: Manoj Bajpayee’s 14-Year Dinner Fast: What You Need to Know from an expert dietitian
Conclusion
The advantages of mind-body connections, which examine how our ideas, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can either positively or negatively affect physical health, have come to the attention of more medical professionals and scientists in recent years. The link between the mind and body is strong. The body keeps track of its performance, and ongoing stress will deteriorate the body and speed up the aging process.