4 replies to this topic

[DAMI]

I keep reading that stress can accelerate the aging process. But what qualifies as stress? Not being perfectly happy about everything in your life? Being sad every now and then? Do you think that sad thoughts ~15 minutes will interfere a lot with an anti-aging lifestyle?

[hippocampus]

Stress can also be "good", that means - it's still "stressful" but it makes you change something, too much stress is bad (you've probably seen famous yerkes-dodson law/curve) - but since you can't avoid stress completely, I'd say bad stress managing is bad. I know that this isn't what you're asking about, but anyway I'd recommend you to focus on approaching positive things, not avoiding negative things (latter is also necessary, but you should focus on first).

[seivtcho]

The emotional stress is being considered as something, that can accelerate the aging process of the brain. Since there are neuro - endocrine theories of the aging process, that claim, that the aging of the body is provoked by aging changes in the brain, it is possible the stress to cause aging of the whole organism.
There is also a term named "stress" described in the terminology in the science of physiology (which is being learned from the medis in the first years of their education). This definition is different from the emotional stress and is very often defined as an adaptive reaction of the organism to a rapid (fast appearing) change. If the physiological stress proceeds too long it leads to distress, which is defined in the physiology as a disability to adapt to the same change. The distress leads can cause various medical problems. So I advise You to consider the term "stress" not only as a big emotional disturbance, but also as a physiological distress, i.e. You have to avoid not only the big bad emotions, but also everything, that can lead to disability for Your body to adapt. Sample thing is not doing more physical activity (exercises), that Your heart can bear.

[niner]

Some things that qualify as stress:

Not getting enough sleep
Malnutrition
Anxiety / Pressure / Fear / Anger

[TheJuice]

I think everyone is qualified to claim their own stress.