Stress Exposure in Prenatal Phase Causes Early Aging, Study Shows

While many people are already aware with the fact that the prenatal stage is extremely important for our development, studies are continuously being performed to determine what are those effects exactly.

The researchers at UC Irvine have recently conducted a study that proved yet another consequence of prenatal exposure to stress, aside from the long-term effects we already knew it has.

Specifically, young adults whose mothers had to deal with stressful situations during pregnancy show signs of accelerated aging. This is because the development of chromosome regions that control cell aging processes has been affected.

"Our previous research on prenatal stress exposure has shown its effects on long-term metabolic, immune, endocrine and cognitive function," said lead author, Dr. Pathik D. Wadhwa, UCI professor of psychiatry & human behavior, obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, and epidemiology for Science Daily.

"But this is the first to show the impact of prenatal stress on cell aging in humans, and it sheds light on an important biological pathway underlying the developmental origins of adult disease risk," he continued.

The researches studied the cases of healthy 25-year-old women and men born to mothers who had, during pregnancy, experienced psychosocial stress in various forms.

According to the aforementioned source, tests revealed the white blood cells had aged an average of three and a half more years - five among women - than those of individuals whose mothers had a stress-free pregnancy.

"These results indicate that stress exposure in intrauterine life is a significant predictor of adult telomere length -- even after accounting for other established prenatal and postnatal influences on telomere length," added Sonja Entringer, UCI assistant professor of pediatrics and first author on the paper.

While traumatic situations can’t actually be controlled nor prevented from happening, there are a few ways of reducing ways. For example, try to get enough sleep, eat right, plan your time, and set limits with yourself and others, to name but a few.