Science Just Confirmed a Frustratingly Ironic Habit That Might Make People Age Faster |
Science Just Confirmed a Frustratingly Ironic Habit That Might Make People Age Faster
Nothing like worrying about worrying, to make you worry even more.
EXPERT OPINION BY BILL MURPHY JR., FOUNDER OF UNDERSTANDABLY AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, INC. @BILLMURPHYJR
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Recently, I wrote about a fascinating Yale study finding that people who hold positive beliefs about aging were significantly more likely to show measurable physical and cognitive improvement over time — in some cases, well into their 80s and 90s.
Shorter version: How you think about getting older shapes how you actually age.
Now comes the uncomfortable flip side of that coin.
A new study out of NYU suggests that if positive beliefs about aging can help you improve, anxiety about aging may be actively making things worse — not just emotionally, but at the cellular level.
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Researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health analyzed data from 726 women who participated in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, a large national survey tracking health and behavior across adulthood.
Participants were asked how much they worried about things like declining health, becoming less attractive with age, and growing too old to have children. Researchers then examined blood samples using two “epigenetic clocks” — scientific tools that measure biological aging based on chemical markers on DNA, independent of how old someone is on paper.
The two clocks measure slightly different things: