Originally published June 29 2005
Ability to cope with stress correlated with long life
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford University researcher recently found that most people who lived longer than average not only ate well and exercised, but were also socially and mentally stable, having an ability to cope with high levels of stress with relative ease.
Increasingly, the scientific community is shifting its focus to this elite group, these "successful agers" who seem to be doing a better job of getting old than the rest of us.
While all of that is true, a voluminous body of aging research shows that some of the most significant enemies of old age are far more insidious than a penchant for fried food or a couch-potato lifestyle.
Instead, how well we age may be intrinsically tied to our most basic personality traits, the social relationships we have formed and -- perhaps most important -- our ability to cope with stress.
Numerous studies of rats, monkeys, nuns, British government workers and centenarians have unlocked many of the secrets of successful aging.
An animal fleeing a predator, a soldier at war or a mother fleeing a burning house with her child all benefit from the fact that the body, under stress, responds by giving your muscles, your heart and your lungs an added boost to help you flee or fight for your life.
Powerful baboons get old, and the young baboons they once terrorized eventually end up in a position to get revenge.
This doesn't mean that everyone who experiences high stress will develop Alzheimer's or that every person with Alzheimer's developed the disease because of stress.
Complicating matters is the fact that not only does stress appear to accelerate aging, but also the older we get, the longer it takes for our bodies to turn off the stress response.
The first step, of course, is to cover the basics -- eat well, manage your weight and exercise.
The issue of control -- or the lack of it -- is a common theme among stress researchers.
Simply disconnect the lever and the rat is less stressed.
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