"Sworn enemies" can accelerate aging – study

The presence in your life of a person who bothers you or creates problems can add 2.5 months to your biological age. This was reported by UNN with reference to News Scientist.

The article notes that in the lives of many of us there are people who bring more anxiety than joy. But these people not only drag us down, but can also accelerate the pace of our aging.

Psychologists have long known that strong social ties determine our lifespan. One study suggests that social isolation can have as strong an impact on mortality as obesity or lack of exercise.

As the publication writes, it is obvious that the quality of relationships can be as important as their quantity. In 2012, researchers at the University of Utah found that "frenemies" – ambivalent relationships that are hot and cold – seem to accelerate the shortening of our telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes. This happens naturally with age and is associated with diseases such as cardiovascular disease.

Now Byungkyu Lee of New York University and his colleagues have turned to a more precise measure of aging, analyzing the impact of negative social connections on tiny chemical changes in DNA called methylation marks. This is an example of epigenetics, which is how your behavior and environment can cause changes that affect how your genes work.

"As we age, the pattern of these marks changes in predictable ways," says Lee.

The team asked 2,232 people to provide saliva samples for epigenetic testing and to describe their relationships with key members of their social network, answering questions such as: "How often has X bothered you, caused problems, or made your life difficult?" In response, they answered "never," "rarely," "occasionally," or "often."

Anyone who caused such problems occasionally or often was called "problematic" – and this was surprisingly common.

"More than half of adults report having at least one problematic person among their closest contacts," Lee said.

It is also clear that the quality of relationships can matter, as these people seemed to have a significant impact on people's epigenetic markers, with each offender being associated with accelerated biological aging by approximately 0.5 percent, making their biological age on average 2.5 months older than would be expected for their chronology.

Negative social connections can trigger a chronic inflammatory stress response, and Lee's team observes higher levels of these markers in people with such relationships, which can impair the immune system.

"The biological impact of a high proportion of 'offenders' in a person's social network is comparable in magnitude to the difference between people who have never smoked and those who have smoked consistently," says Lee.

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The effect is most pronounced among those who, at the same time, offered the person at least some social support.

"The same person who comforts you today may start criticizing you tomorrow, causing more physiological harm than a relationship you might simply classify as bad and potentially avoidant," says Lee.

Alex Haslam of the University of Queensland in Australia says the article "is certainly consistent with other work that has explored these issues, and points to the importance of social relationships for health."

He also argues that a general sense of belonging to a group can have a greater impact on aging than the influence of a few individuals. "For example, if I am a member of a book club or a choir, my health will be affected by my identification with the group as a whole, rather than how well I get along with its individual members," he says.

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