Stress, Stress, Go Away, Keep Me Young Another Day

Stress sadly seems to go hand-in-hand with modern life. American life especially seems prepped for this unpleasant side effect, with a shocking 79% of us feeling the strain. Hence why 20 million Americans now practise yoga, meditation or just essential self-care habits that can help to overcome the issue. But, what if you’re one of the 79% who just doesn’t see the point in these stress-relievers?

Limited time is often a leading cause for stress, so why on earth would you add to the motherload? Wouldn’t you feel less stressed if you just dealt with what you had to do without adding to it? 

Sadly not. Evidence suggests that, far from just helping you feel better, yoga addresses stress-related problems like high blood pressure, racing heart rates, and more. Those are benefits you’re never going to get from just working through the to-do list.

Despite that, an astounding amount of us still neglects to address stress in any real way. We treat it as a standard and inevitable part of modern life. But, as though health weren’t reason enough to change that, we’ve got one pressing issue that might, and it comes in the form of premature aging.

For years, experts have linked stress with premature aging of up to 10 years. If you don’t get your yoga mat out or similar out soon, don’t be surprised if you start falling foul to key agers, including the following.

Cortisol

Cortisol is the leading stress hormone, and it has the unfortunate side-effect of wreaking havoc on our skin. This not-so-innocent stress addition has an astounding ability to break down collagen. And, when collagen starts failing, wrinkles soon follow. Believe it or not, then, a failure to find healthy ways to eliminate the stress could quickly see you turning to a dermal filler like Bellafill that replaces lost collagen. What’s more, action like this will become necessary a whole lot sooner than you’re expecting! 

Adrenaline

It’s no surprise that stress causes adrenaline. Our natural fight or flight instincts are often behind our rising stress levels within competitive modern lifestyles. But, you may be surprised to find that adrenaline also plays a nasty role in premature aging. That’s because prolonged adrenaline production (a stress standard) leads to restricted blood vessels which can decrease both hearing and vision. Studies have yet to prove whether this impact is long-lasting, but do you really want to take the risk of finding out? 

Stress steroids

Last but most definitely not least, recent studies have uncovered a pretty strong case for a correlation between so-called ‘stress steroids’ within the brain and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. On the back of these studies, stress expert Dr Kathleen Hall explicitly recommends brain training, meditation and more to help keep stress, and Alzheimer’s, at bay. 

As you can see, skipping out on yoga class does a little more than leave you on edge. So, don’t hesitate to book up and address your growing stress levels now if you want to stay younger for longer.