It’s normal to feel stressed every now and then, but chronic stress can cause health issues like anxiety, high blood pressure and even heart attacks.
But the effects don’t stop there. On a recent episode of 10% Happier with Dan Harris, Elissa Epel, author of “The Stress Prescription,” and expert on well-being and aging, shared how chronic stress can affect your cellular health and accelerate aging.
“As my guest today says, your cells are listening to your life, and if you tweak your life, your cells will respond accordingly,” said Harris.
In each cell within the body, chromosomes “have protective caps at the tips, and these are called telomeres,” Epel said on the podcast.
“They don’t like stress, and stress is a threat to them because it might damage our DNA and create all sorts of biological problems.”
