Stress and Aging:  What Everyone Should Know

What exactly is stress?  Try reading up on health articles and you will often encounter this word. The question is…do we really know what it means?

Stress in general is a word used to describe a state of mental, physical and emotional strain and suspense. While for some people, it may mean pressure or distress itself.

There have been many studies done that shows proofs on how our health is greatly affected by how we react to stressful events in life-setbacks or deadlines at work, conflicts and losses at home.  Studies show that stress and anxiety can actually crumble our body's immune system.  “Our mind reacts with the same body response by releasing stress hormones equal to the degree of our fear, worry or sense of threat. It brings about changes in the body's biochemical state with extra epinephrine and other adrenal steroids such as hydrocortisone in the bloodstream. It also induces increased palpitation and blood pressure in the body with mental manifestations such as anger, fear, worry or aggression.”  This simply means that stress causes anomalies inside our body that makes our bodies more prone to mental and physical illnesses.

There are several risk factors that lead to stress and the elderly. Some include a past history of depressive illness, inadequate social support, and serious illnesses such as a stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Some reports have suggested that life stress may also be related to late-life depression (Glass 1997). There are also many internal and external stresses that many women are susceptible to in their fifty's. The possibilities of intra and interpersonal strains make this a time of insecurity about aging for many women. Some of these strains are widowhood, divorce, declining income, aging and developmental changes, obstacles to successful aging, and role constancy

Cortisol, a stress hormone released by adrenal glands, functions to raise blood pressure and break down stored energy reserves in the face of a real or perceived threat. Long-term release of cortisol kills memory-forming neurons thus increasing the risk of brain aging in later life. 

However, some people said that the real culprit is our inability to cope and react to certain stressful situations.  Since stress is unavoidable and we encounter stress in our everyday life, it is therefore advisable to change how we react to certain stress and teach ourselves to react better to stress. 

Experts concluded that we should have a regular medical check ups to alleviate any minor health problems and ensure that we are healthy.  We should also seek to find people who will give us constant company and inspiration and we should learn to take life easy, relax and enjoy. 

So start having a positive outlook today.  It might save your life.  Love, laugh and live!