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Phobias lead to premature aging
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Women with phobias on molecular indicators are older than their years. In such premature aging, researchers blame psychological stress, which can shorten telomeres and thereby age the cells.
There is a darkness of various phobias, and any person can call a couple of the most famous, like claustra or arachnophobia. Perhaps there is no such thing or situation with which some sort of panic irrational fear would not be associated. Phobias are common: according to statistics, for example, 8% of Americans suffer from at least one phobia.
Psychological stress associated with phobias, like any stress, obviously has to somehow affect health. To test this, researchers from the Brigham Hospital at Harvard University (USA) took blood samples from more than five thousand women aged 42 to 69 years. The blood test was compared with the data of psychological testing. It turned out that the ladies with phobias were on molecular markers older than their age - about six years.
In an article published in PLoS ONE, researchers argue that telomeres can act as a bridge between phobias and accelerated aging. The authors of the work paid special attention to them. These end fragments of chromosomes protect the genetic information from damage during cell division. With age, telomeres are shortened, and the risk of damage to important genes increases. The shortening of telomeres can be accelerated by oxidative stress and inflammation. In turn, short telomere sites increase the risk of cardiac, oncological and neurodegenerative diseases, especially at a certain age.
Psychological stress, according to scientists, can lead to inflammatory and oxidative damage to telomeres. However, as the authors of the study emphasize, there is no direct evidence of a relationship between stress and telomere length. So this is just one of the possible explanations of how stress can shorten life - although the most plausible.
Phobias are most susceptible to women of middle and post-Balzac age: just then worries about the passing youth are exacerbated. Well, perhaps a visit to a therapist and taking antiphobic soothing will help them to save if not young beauty, then at least young health.
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