Stress Accelerates Aging. Fight Back in 5 Minutes.

Social stress doesn’t just mess with your head—it damages your DNA and biologically ages you. New data just published in Nature Aging raises concerns, but there are ways to fight back...

There’s now a YouTube Video covering these new findings. If you prefer to watch, click below. If you prefer to read, continue on.

What if I told you that social stress doesn’t just mess with your head—it damages your DNA and biologically ages you?

That’s not hyperbole; it’s hard science from new data published in Nature Aging. If you’re like me—juggling a life full of psychological stress—you might be wondering: How can I fight back?

Stick with me, because by the end of this, I’ll share 3 tips to help you turn this lemon of a paper into practical ‘mind-hacking’ lemonade, including a powerful, randomized control trial-backed breathing technique that takes just 5 minutes a day and could help you combat the harmful effects of stress. But first, let’s break down the data.

Background on Aging

Aging is complex, and there’s no one easy way to measure biological age. However, certain hallmarks of aging—like DNA damage, telomere shortening, and cellular senescence—are widely recognized. “Senescence,” the process by which cells age and stop dividing, accumulates as we age and plays a role in chronic diseases like heart disease and Alzheimer’s. While senescence has some adaptive functions, for our purposes, it’s fair to call it a hallmark of aging.

Senescence can be triggered by inflammation and DNA damage. And senescence can be measured by markers, like “p16”. (If you want to remember this, just imagine the stress of having a pissed off 16 year old kid.)

In this study the researchers subjected mice to chronic social stress or, more specifically, “chronic subordination stress”: The experimental mouse is exposed to an aggressive dominant mouse daily.

The human equivalent would be like a bully at school, an abusive parent, or a hyper-aggressive boss.

Social Stress Increases Marker of Senescence

In just 4 weeks, the experimental mouse (the one that got bullied) exhibited increases in markers of senescence, predominantly p16. And this marker of senescence and aging accumulated over time, with levels as high as 12X that of control mice by 26 months of age in circulating blood cells.

But if only it were just circulating blood cells…

The researchers then found something really scary: the cell type most sensitive to
stress-induced senescence were neurons in the brain.

**Simply “red” represents p16 expression in neurons** — If you want the details, blue is a stain called DAPI that marks cell nuclei. The red here reflects p16 expression, bit the technique os complex and beyond the scope of this latter. In breif, they used a Cre-Lox system to with a tdTomato (red) reporter element within a Cre transgene driven by the endogenous p16 promoter. The graph compares transgenic mice exposed to chronic subordination stress (CSS) to controls, not exposed to CSS. The “Keep it Simple Stupid” version is: Chronic Social Stress = more p16 = more ‘biological aging’ in neurons.

Social Stress Increases DNA Damage

And they found evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the senescence, and presumed biological aging, were triggered by DNA damage (measured by a marker called γH2AX) and inflammation.

So, to summarize: chronic social stress caused DNA damage and inflammation, in association with increases in a marker of senescence and biological aging, p16, especially in the brain.

Scary, right?

And it’s also worth noting this chronic social stress model is also associated with overeating, weight gain, cardiovascular, neuroimmune, and metabolic diseases. So, the signs of biological damage tend to align with clinical hard outcomes.

Stress is an age accelerator.

**Brief aside: There were other nuances: different senescence markers (p16, SA-β-gal) and responses in other models of non-social stress, potential sex-dependent differences, and so on. So, if you want to read the paper, I encourage it. But I’m going to put those aside for now because I want to discuss the “so what,” and suggest practical solutions that don’t involve quitting your job if your boss is a jerk…

Combating Stressors, Tip 1: Awareness Matters

Here are 3 tips to combat the negative effects of stress — or, more accurately, stressors.

(1) First, awareness is the first step is adaptation. Now that you’ve watched this video, you have a biological handle for awareness. Even—or especially—when the data are “scary,” I find this offers the motivation to seek change.

By way of analogy, when I found out I carry risk genes for Alzheimer’s (two copies of ApoE4), at first, I was freaked out. But then I realized, “This was always in me, but having the knowledge—especially early on in life—is a gift. It’s the motivation and power to take every preventative action and, in the end, achieve the best outcome in a given scenario.”

Tell me if you agree in a comment: Knowledge/Awareness is Power.

Combating Stressors, Tip 2: Growth Mindset

Second, not all stress is bad. The balance of research shows that it’s about how we respond to a stressor, not the nature of the stressor itself.

If you can find a way to adopt a “Growth Mindset” in a situation, or focus on the positives and purpose, that’s huge.

**Skip the rest of this section if you don’t want to waste time on my rambling about myself

As another personal example, I’ve been subject to academic harassment and bullying over the course of my still young academic career. To me, this is worse than physical bullying. I can punch back in a physical fight if I need to, but when someone exerts their academic seniority in a hierarchical system to attack your career, hitting up the hierarchy can sometimes create more pain for you than for the aggressor.

The instance I had in mind tore me up inside, but ultimately, I found contentment in a “growth mindset,” here internalizing the truth that (i) the event as it transpired was initiated by an unforced error on my part. I did the “right” thing, but I did it in a way that left me vulnerable to an attack. That was dumb, but it taught me not to assume others will play fair. That was valuable lesson about a harsh reality that I’ll carry with me going forward. The issue is now resolved, and I’m the wiser for it. I should be grateful.

(ii) I focused my energy on my purpose. I’m doing an MD/PhD (in fact, I’m a few months away from finishing!) because of you. Because I love communicating science, teaching, and conducting research that can change lives. The practical value of Oxford and Harvard brands, and MD/PhD letters, is immense. I know I will be soon in a position to leverage those credentials for the greater good: this world’s metabolic health. To be clear, I am NOT saying letters and brands should be used as a lever of credibility. I’m just acknowledging the realities of our social structure and being transparent that I will play the game that needs to be played to make “Metabolic Health Mainstream.” And I’m only verbalizing this because I’ve promised myself and you authenticity.

Combating Stressors, Tip 3: Physiologic Sigh

Third, and most practical, try practicing a physiologic sigh for just 5 minutes per day.

This is a structured breathing method characterized by two stacked inhales, followed by a long exhale (1.0s inhale, 0.25s inhale, 2s exhale).

It’s a method Andrew Huberman turned me on to, and it’s backed by science. In fact, in a randomized controlled trial published in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers compared 3 forms of breathing (physiologic sigh, box breathing, and cyclic hyperventilation) to meditation.

• In short, they found physiologic sigh performed best overall at increasing positive affect, reducing anxiety, and physiological markers of arousal, like respiratory rate.

• Furthermore, the benefits of daily physiologic sigh for just 5 minutes accumulated as people engaged in the practice for more days.

Quoting from the paper:

“We found that the cyclic [physiologic] sighing group had a significantly higher increase in positive affect than those in the mindfulness meditation group … Cyclic [physiologic] sighing also had a significant interaction with cumulative days on protocol compared with mindfulness meditation, suggesting that subjects benefited more from the exercise the more days they did it, an effect not observed in the other groups.”

**An aside on Andrew Huberman: One other thing I’ll note is that Andrew Huberman himself was the senior author on this paper. I want to note that because you’ll notice Andrew promotes a lot of research, but rarely if ever “self-cites.” This is rare, especially given his position where he has the influence to crank up the metrics on his own research easily. But he doesn’t. I don’t think anyone else has even publicly observed this “quirk,” so let me be the first, as I think it speaks to his humble character. That deserves credit. It’s sometimes hard to know the authentic person behind the brand—especially when fame invites vicious attacks, sometimes warranted and sometimes outright lies. And how are you to know the difference? So, take this for what it’s worth. I can’t think of a single other famous researcher who intentionally avoids promoting their own work. Interesting, right?**

Next Question: What about “Resilience?”

I want to end by presenting a key question about resilience to consider as this research progresses.

It’s highly likely there are differences in vulnerability to stress-induced senescence. The flip side of the coin is “resilience” to stressors. But what makes one more resilient? Is it about psychology? Mindset? Or is it primarily metabolic?

In fact, in this paper, they note that chronic social stress activates known inflammatory pathways, like the NLRP3 inflammasome, which can be inhibited by practices like fasting or ketogenic diets.

So, could certain dietary practices build resilience to social stress?

My hypothesis is that lifestyle practices, including diet, sleep, and exercise, contribute to resilience. This highlights their importance in our stress-filled world.

So, what’s your first step? Will you try the physiologic sigh, reevaluate your stress responses, or focus on improving your sleep and diet? Take one small step today—your future self will thank you.

If this resonated with you, share your thoughts in a comment and share this post, and let’s build a community that thrives under pressure. #StayCurious

P.S. Promotion: Happy New Year & 30 Day Challange

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