Stress reduces life expectancy
We know that stress is a great dampner on our lives, but did you know that experiencing it early on can actually affect how long we live.
A new study from the University of Glasgow, suggests that our expectancy is likely to be strongly affected by how much stress we were exposed to early in our lives.
It also shows that the stress experienced by our friends in early life could also be affecting how long we are likely to live.
The study, conducted by a team led by Professor Pat Monaghan, use a small bird, the zebra finch. The way in which the body responds to stress is essentially the same in all the higher vertebrate including humans and zebra finches, like humans, also form strong bonds with their mates.
The result of the study, were surprising to the scientists. “Other research led us to expect that increased stress exposure in early life would reduce adult lifespan’, said Professor Pat Monaghan, “but we were not expecting such a big effect on breeding partners. Unstressed birds had mortality rates that were four times higher than normal if they were simply given partners that had experienced stress earlier in their lives.”
The research team believes that part of the reason for the partner effect might be that these jittery individuals are not very comforting to be with. According to Professor Monaghan, “The take home message is that the wrong kind of partner can be very bad for your health.”