Fear of ageing may actually make women age biologically faster: Study

How women feel about growing older may be connected to how their bodies age at a molecular level, suggests a new NYU study

What if the fear of growing older is speeding up the process itself? A new US study suggests it might.

 

Researchers from NYU School of Global Public Health found that women who feel more anxious about age-related health decline show signs of faster biological ageing at the cellular level.

 

The study, titled Aging anxiety and epigenetic aging in a national sample of adult women in the United States, and published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, raises a key question: can our thoughts about ageing actually shape how fast our bodies age? 

What is ‘ageing anxiety’? 

According to the study, ageing anxiety refers to worries about growing older, including fears of declining health, loss of attractiveness, and reduced fertility. For women, these anxieties are often amplified by social expectations around youth, beauty, caregiving roles and reproductive timelines.

 

 

The study notes that health-related worries tend to be the most persistent form of ageing anxiety among women, while concerns about beauty and fertility often decline with age.

 

Lead author Mariana Rodrigues, a PhD student at NYU School of Global Public Health, said in a statement published on the university’s website: “Aging-related anxiety is not merely a psychological concern, but may leave a mark on the body with real health consequences.” 

What does biological or epigenetic ageing mean? 

Chronological age refers to the number of years a person has lived. Biological age reflects how old the body appears at a cellular level.

 

Scientists estimate this using “epigenetic clocks”, which examine chemical tags on DNA known as methylation patterns. These patterns change over time and can indicate how quickly the body is ageing.

 

In this study, researchers used two advanced epigenetic clocks:

• DunedinPACE, which measures the current pace of ageing
• GrimAge2, which estimates cumulative biological damage and predicts mortality risk

 

Both tools were applied to blood samples from 726 women participating in the nationally representative Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. 

What did the study find? 

The strongest link emerged between anxiety about declining health and faster ageing measured by DunedinPACE.

 

Women who reported greater health-related ageing anxiety had significantly higher scores on the DunedinPACE clock, meaning their bodies were ageing at a faster pace.

 

However, anxiety about declining attractiveness and fertility did not show a significant association with biological ageing.

 

When researchers adjusted for health behaviours such as smoking, alcohol use and body mass index, the association between health anxiety and accelerated ageing weakened and was no longer statistically significant.

 

This suggests that lifestyle behaviours may partly explain how anxiety translates into biological effects. 

Why would worrying about health accelerate ageing? 

The researchers talk about a biopsychosocial pathway in the study. According to them, health-related anxiety may activate the body’s stress systems repeatedly. Chronic stress can dysregulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increase inflammation, both known contributors to cellular ageing.

 

Unlike fleeting stressors, anxiety about ageing is self-focused and ongoing. Every new ache, every grey hair, every story about illness in peers may reinforce that stress loop. Over time, this repeated physiological activation could leave molecular traces.

 

Study authors described ageing anxiety as a “measurable and modifiable psychological determinant” that may shape ageing biology. They also emphasise that more longitudinal research is needed to determine whether these changes are reversible or whether reducing anxiety could slow biological ageing trajectories.

 

The study underscores a crucial idea that mental and physical health are connected.

 

If ageing anxiety contributes to unhealthy coping behaviours such as smoking, physical inactivity or excessive alcohol use, addressing those behaviours may help reduce risk.

 

More importantly, reshaping societal narratives around ageing may have biological implications. Researchers noted that ageing is universal and called for broader conversations about how cultural norms and structural factors influence women’s experiences of ageing.

 

The findings suggest that how women feel about growing older may be connected to how their bodies age at a molecular level. That is a powerful reminder that mindset affects physical wellbeing.