The geroscience agenda: Toxic stress, hormetic stress, and the rate of aging

Abstract

Highlights Social, behavioral and psychological drivers of aging are an important part of geroscience. Toxic stress accelerates biological aging processes whereas hormetic stress can slow aging. However, the types, timing, and frequency of hormetic stress, especially in humans, needs to be better delineated in order to be useful. Stress resilience, a larger umbrella term including hormetic stress that focuses on recovery, can be measured across levels--cellular, physiological psychological and social functioning. Developing a deeper understanding of stress resilience will lead to more targeted innovative interventions.

Inflamm-Aging and Brain Insulin Resistance: New Insights and Role of Life-style Strategies on Cognitive and Social Determinants in Aging and Neurodegeneration

“…Changes in brain insulin signaling, and in particular in the hippocampus, can alter molecular pathways involved in synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis in adults, thereby leading to a decrease in cognitive reserve, an increased risk of neurodegeneration, and a shortened life span ( Epel, 2020 ). Long-term persistent excess of nutrients is the cause of stress acceleration of aging.…”

“…Inflammation, metainflammation, central and peripheral IR are determinants of aging along with behavioral, social, environmental, toxic, and other factors ( Vidaček et al, 2018 ; Lever-van Milligen et al, 2019 ; Epel, 2020 ) ( Figure 4 ). Different types of stressors can potentially lead to adaptive changes or accelerated aging.…”

“…It depends on the nature of the stressors, stress resilience, and the stress response. At the same time, one of the promising strategies of slowing aging is an increase in stress resistance due to boosting stress resilience ( Epel, 2020 ).…”

“…Therefore, CR can be considered as a stress rejuvenescence. The various effects of CR on metainflammation, IR, and neurodegeneration have been described ( Hotamisligil, 2017 ; Epel, 2020 ). Less attention has been paid to the social determinants of aging and the possible mechanism by which CR might influence social behavior ( Pifferi et al, 2018 ).…”

Resilience, pain, and the brain: Relationships differ by sociodemographics

“…Our study was comprised of community-dwelling adults reporting mild to moderate chronic musculoskeletal pain at one or more factors are significant predictors of health disparities (Bagby et al, 2019;Palmer et al, 2019). There is a body of evidence to suggest that environmental stress contributes to a greater allostatic load contributing toward eventual "overload" resulting in greater disease burden and worse health outcomes in underrepresented ethnic/ race groups (Epel, 2020;Mickle et al, 2020;Myers, 2009). Finally,…”