It’s normal to feel frustrated with getting older when you need to go through an intense recovery
process after a workout just to feel like a functioning human the next
day. But stressing about the impact of aging on your health can actually
work against your goal of having a longer health span, according to new
research.
The study, which was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology,
found a shocking link between the way women view aging and the actual
pace at which they age. Ultimately, researchers found that worrying
about your health as you get older can impact you on a cellular level.
Sure,
there’s a big difference between being a little annoyed that your 5K
time isn’t what it used to be and actually stressing about your future
health. But psychologists say the findings make a solid case for trying
to do what you can to turn a negative mindset around, especially when it
comes to your future health. Here’s why.
Fears about health can ultimately worsen your future health.
For
the study, researchers analyzed data from 726 women who took part in
the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. As part of the research,
the participants were asked how much they worried about common fears
that tend to surface with aging, including how much they stressed about
becoming less attractive with age, having more health issues, and being
too old to have children.
The
study also collected blood samples to track aging using two epigenetic
clocks. One, called the DunedinPACE biological marker, looked at a
person’s pace of biological aging while the other, called the GrimAge2,
estimated biological damage that built up over time. After crunching the
data, the researchers found that women who reported having higher
levels of anxiety about getting older also had faster epigenetic aging.
(In case you’re not familiar with it, epigenetic aging looks at a
person’s biological age based on chemical changes to their DNA.)
When
they dove a little deeper, the researchers found that fears about
declining health in particular were the most strongly linked with a
faster pace of epigenetic aging. However, worries around a decline in
attractiveness and fertility weren’t strongly linked with epigenetic
aging. The researchers ultimately concluded that “fears about declining
health may manifest biologically and contribute to accelerated aging
processes.”
What’s going on here?
It’s
important to point this out: The study didn’t definitively prove that
women who had more anxiety around aging actually aged faster. Instead,
it found a link between fears around aging and signs of accelerated
aging. “More research is needed to determine whether these concerns
directly cause these changes,” Mariana Rodrigues,
lead study author and a PhD student in the department of social and
behavioral sciences at the NYU School of Global Public Health, tells
SELF.
Still,
psychologists say it’s not shocking to think that worries about your
well-being may lead to worse health. Fears around health can spark a
chain reaction that ultimately has an impact on your physical health,
Thea Gallagher, PsyD, clinical associate professor at NYU Langone Health
and cohost of the Mind in View
podcast, tells SELF. “Worry and anxiety causes stress and strain on
your body,” she says. “It takes up a lot of mental resources, which then
take up physical resources.”
Stressing
about your future health can impact your sleep, heart rate, and your
nervous system, and all of those can contribute to worse health
outcomes, Dr. Gallagher says.
It can also do a number on your heart health, Hillary Ammon, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Anxiety and Women’s Emotional Wellness,
tells SELF. “The body reacts to anxiety in similar ways to how it
reacts to fear,” she says. “When we are experiencing these emotions, the
body releases [stress hormones] cortisol and epinephrine, along with
neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and glutamate. So if someone is
constantly worrying about their physical health, it may put these
hormones and neurotransmitters in overdrive.”
This
can even cause your blood sugar to fluctuate and fuel chronic
inflammation in your body, Dr. Ammon adds. Unfortunately, chronic
inflammation is linked
to a range of serious health conditions, including autoimmune diseases,
heart disease, and cancer. “By chronically worrying about their health,
individuals unfortunately create more health problems, leaving them
more susceptible to additional health issues,” Dr. Ammon says.
One
more thing to consider, per Dr. Ammon: When you have health anxiety,
you tend to be hypersensitive to what’s happening with your body. “You
may notice minor changes, which in turn, likely makes their anxiety
worse,” she says. “It is a cyclical pattern.”
How to navigate health fears around aging
It’s
normal and okay to worry sometimes about your health, Dr. Gallagher
points out. But the big concern is when you regularly stress about it.
“People worry naturally, but often don't pause to consider whether the worry is helping anything,” Jessica Bodie, PhD,
a licensed clinical psychologist at the Center for the Treatment and
Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania, tells SELF. “By not
giving the anxious thought as many follow-up behaviors—scanning,
Googling—the brain registers the anxious thought as less valid.”
Worrying
“keeps out of the present and in the future,” Dr. Gallagher points out.
That’s why she recommends doing what you can to focus on what’s in
front of you. Are you in generally good health now and doing all you can
to stay healthy? Great—focus on that.
“We
also have to be really careful that if your friend is diagnosed with
cancer, that you feel like it’s happening everywhere and will happen to
you,” Dr. Gallagher says. “Sometimes we’re just more attuned to the
negative things happening with people’s health versus thinking about how
another friend who just ran a marathon is in great health.”
Dr.
Gallagher stresses the importance of differentiating your own health
status from those of people around you and trying to remind yourself of
the things you can and can’t control. And, of course, try not to worry
about the potential impact stressing about your health will have on your
health—that’s not solving any issues either.
Of
course, if you’re struggling with health anxiety and it’s impacting
your day-to-day, Dr. Ammon says it’s a good idea to talk to a mental
health professional. They can help you navigate your concerns as well as
go over strategies to deal with those fears when they pop up.
But
Dr. Gallagher also recommends trying to keep something very important
in mind when it comes to worries about your future health. “You don’t
want to live your life worrying about what could happen,” she says. “It’s either going to happen or not, and worrying won’t change anything.”
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Originally Appeared on Self
