How much stress is good now?
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Researchers have been concerned with the question of why people age for decades. Cosmetics, treatments and tips against aging are causing sales in various industries to skyrocket and an opponent against which they are all fighting: stress. But now researchers at Saarland University want to find out that it is the other way around: little stress seems to make us age more than a lot of stress.
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Too little cortisol triggers inflammation
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In the focus of the newly published study is the stress hormone cortisol. “When people age, their body’s defenses also age,” the researchers explain in their study. What is meant is the weakening immune system, resulting in chronic inflammation form in the body.
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In the new study, the researchers want to find out that the cortisol level in the body that decreases with age is responsible for the increasing number of inflammations. So far, cortisol has been considered a stress hormone, so you should actually avoid it, right?
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The falling cortisol level triggers a number of reactions in the body. At the end there is a protein that is also anti-inflammatory and is therefore no longer produced in sufficient quantities. The chronic inflammation in turn intensifies the physical aging process.
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Stress is not just bad
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But is there also positive stress? The stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are also released on birthdays, weddings or professional and private successes, explains Matthias Less, medical psychotherapist and board member of the Institute for Stress Medicine Rhein-Ruhr to the DPA. However, the stress response here is short-lived. “Then serotonin and endorphins are released, which lead to feelings of happiness, emotional balance, rational thinking and good decisions.”
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