Story at a glance
- Researchers from the University of Southern California studied how social stressors can age the body’s immune system.
- They found everyday discrimination, stressful life events, life trauma and chronic stress were linked to lower quality T cells — part of the immune system that protects against infection.
- Thirty-one percent of U.S. adults reported at least one major discriminatory occurrence in their lifetime.
Aging is an inevitable part of life, but new research suggests that specific life circumstances like chronic stress, discrimination and trauma can cause the aging process to jumpstart. A new study has connected social stressors with accelerated aging of the body’s immune system.
Health experts know that exposure to stress is a risk factor for poor health, it’s linked to a multitude of health problems like chest pain, insomnia, high blood pressure and even anxiety and depression.
Researchers from the University of Southern California decided to study how exposure to social stressors, like everyday discrimination, stressful life events, lifetime discrimination, life trauma and chronic stress can accelerate aging.
They analyzed 5,744 U.S. adults over the age of 50 to assess their relationship of social stress with immune aging, by measuring their T cells, which are vital cells part of the immune system that protect the body from infection.
As people age, the body’s immune system naturally begins to downgrade with fewer fresh T cells being produced that can fend off infection.
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Researchers found that exposure to social stressors does in fact accelerate aging by aging the immune system through a decline in new T cells, which could contribute to elevated risk for poor health among those who experience high psychosocial stress.
Immune aging is associated not only with cancer but with cardiovascular disease, increased risk of pneumonia and reduced efficacy of vaccines — like for COVID-19.
Specifically, researchers found that life trauma and chronic stress were associated with a lower percentage of naïve T cells, whereas everyday discrimination, lifetime discrimination and chronic stress were associated with a greater percentage of terminally differentiated T cells — which means a cell becomes specialized to one specific function and can no longer divide.
All effects observed were independent of chronological age, sex and race/ethnicity.
“In this study, after statistically controlling for poor diet and low exercise, the connection between stress and accelerated immune aging wasn’t as strong,” said Eric Klopack, co-author of the study, in a statement.
“What this means is people who experience more stress tend to have poorer diet and exercise habits, partly explaining why they have more accelerated immune aging.”
The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) also says that discrimination may have high physical and emotional health costs and if sustained over time, discrimination, “may lead to wear and tear on the body.”
ODPHP also noted that discrimination is common among Americans with 31 percent of U.S. adults reporting at least one major discriminatory occurrence in their lifetime and 63 percent reported experiencing discrimination every day.
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