Brea Perry

your stress response is going to go crazy.

And that's actually really good for you because you run faster and your muscles work better and you're super vigilant and it can help protect you from dangerous things.

But when we experience sort of chronic stress in daily life, it creates a lot of wear and tear for our biological systems and increases things like inflammation and it messes with our immune system and it can cause chronic disease.

Yeah.

I mean, it might have.

That's, yeah.

So you can't undo DNA methylation, right?

You can't undo how much your body has aged, but you can reduce other risk factors or you can remove those stressors from your life.

And then hope to decelerate your aging because really it accumulates across the life course.

So, you know, if you do things later that can reduce your accelerated aging, then the net, you know, then the sort of net aging might be okay in the long run.

I don't think this is a new thing, right?

Like having difficult people in your life is just part of being in relationships, especially in relationships that are hard to extract yourself from, like family relationships.

And it just resonates with everybody.

I've talked to a lot of people about this study and everybody can identify a hassler in their life, it seems like.

Yeah, we were kind of surprised by this at first, but it makes sense because partners and spouses usually bring a lot of amazing things to your life, right?

Like a lot of social support, economic security.

Sex is really good for your, you know, biological aging.

And so and then at the same time, as you mentioned, when spouses do hassle you, it's often a form of regulation, right?

which means they're trying to get you to do things that are actually better for your health, which is probably a net benefit.

I agree with your girlfriend.