Having three to six stressful events happen in midlife – anything from loss of a job, business failure, divorce, putting an aging parent into care or the death of a spouse or child – can increase the chances of dying by 50 per cent.

But the upside of a new study on the serious toll stressful life events have on health is two fold:

• We seem to “max out” on stress at the higher levels – anything more than two major ‘events’ and the impact levels out…
• Keeping stress to a minimum seems to be a secret . . .  if you relax with a glass of wine and enjoy the company of spouse or close companion you do better than if you totally abstain of if you smoke.

The study recorded the experience of 1000 healthy middle aged men and compared those who endured two or less major life events with those who had to deal with three to six traumas.

Leader researcher Carolyn Aldwin at the Oregon State University concluded that while people were hardy, and can deal with a few major stresses a year, long-term, even moderate stress can have lethal effects.

The study is published in the Journal of Aging Research.

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About the author

Jenny W