Don’t Be Afraid To Live Longer

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he wasn’t talking about aging. But a study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston shows that phobic fear may shorten your life.

An analysis of the effect of phobic anxiety on the health of human cells demonstrates that being overly afraid of common situations may produce stress that reduces your life expectancy. Researchers have found that phobic anxiety (debilitating fright resulting from things like spiders, big crowds or elevators) is associated with shorter telomeres in cells. Those telomeres are designed to protect your DNA. When they shrink, you may be at increased risk of cancer, heart disease, dementia and early death.

“Many people wonder about whether — and how — stress can make us age faster,” says researcher Olivia Okereke, study author. “So, this study is notable for showing a connection between a common form of psychological stress — phobic anxiety — and a plausible mechanism for premature aging. However, this type of study design cannot prove cause-and-effect or which problem came first — the anxiety or shorter telomeres.”

The difference in telomere lengths for women who were highly phobic compared to those who were more sanguine was similar to what was seen for an additional six years of age.