WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new study suggests that difficult people in your life may speed up your ageing and could even increase your risk of death.
'What was most striking was that negative social ties were linked not just to self-reported stress or mental health, but to molecular measures of biological ageing,' study author Dr. Byungkyu Lee from New York University told BBC Science Focus.
The research, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), looked at 2,345 people aged between 18 and 103. It examined their biological age along with details about their social relationships. The focus was on people in their lives who regularly caused stress, referred to as 'hasslers.'
'A hassler could be a parent or sibling who repeatedly creates conflict, a friend or another person in your inner circle who regularly drains your time and emotional energy,' Lee explained.
'In everyday life, that might look like a family member who constantly demands help or criticises you, a friend who stirs up drama, or someone you feel obligated to keep dealing with even though the relationship is consistently stressful.'
Participants were asked to list people they spend time with, talk to about personal or health issues, or who influence their lifestyle. They were also asked to identify anyone who often made life stressful or difficult. Only those who caused frequent stress were labelled as hasslers, while those who did so occasionally were not included.
The participants also gave saliva samples. These were used to measure whether their bodies were biologically older or younger than their actual age, and how fast they were ageing.
The study found that nearly 30 percent of people had at least one hassler in their lives, and about 10 percent had two or more. This shows that stressful relationships are quite common, even though they are not studied as much as positive ones. Each additional hassler was linked to about nine extra months of biological ageing and a slightly faster ageing rate.
Only 3.5 percent of friendships were considered stressful, compared to nearly 10 percent of relationships with parents or children. This suggests that it's harder to distance yourself from stressful family members than from friends.
Interestingly, negative relationships with spouses or partners did not show the same effect on ageing. One reason could be that even if there is some conflict, these relationships also provide strong emotional support, which may help balance out the stress.
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