about the episode

When we talk about our age, it usually has to do with our age in the number of birthdays we celebrate. But lifestyle and health may cause a young person to have an older biological body and vice versa.

This biological age is determined by looking at the markers in our DNA that say something about, well, the decomposition of our bodies. New research now suggests that stress has a negative effect on this, but that it can also be partially reversed.

The study looked at the DNA of people who had three different stressful experiences. They saw that the biological age of a small group of patients increased after acute hip surgery, but they recovered after a week.

They saw the biological age of female patients who ended up in the hospital with serious complaints of coronavirus after being allowed to go home, but they didn’t immediately see this happen in men admitted for the same reason.

The DNA of more than 200 pregnant women was also examined. During pregnancy, biological age increased, but six weeks postpartum, it declined on average to what it was at the beginning of pregnancy.

The results are in line with previous studies, which have shown, among other things, that gray hair can regain its color in some cases after a person has recovered from an impactful event such as a divorce.

Although some recovery is possible, the researchers who were not involved in this study caution that the overall trend will not change. However, the researchers of this study hope that it will open the way for a potential treatment that could give biological age an additional downward push.

Read more about the search here: Stress makes us age faster but the effects can be reversed.