Summary: Yes. New research from the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (USVA) shows that having PTSD can make you age faster, a result caused by increased risk of physical disease and changes in DNA structure and function.
Key Points:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with chronic exposure to stress and stress hormones.
- Chronic exposure to stress hormones caused by toxic stress increases risk of heart disease, and diabetes, all of which are associated with risk of premature mortality.
- Recent studies show PTSD increase rates of change associated with aging in two key DNA processes related to aging.
- PTSD was also identified as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD)
The Physical Health Risks of PTSD
Most people who know about PTSD know the emotional and psychological symptoms of PTSD can impair basic functioning across all important life domains, including relationships, work, and school. Some people who are aware of PTSD are also aware of the long-term health consequences of PTSD – specifically untreated PTSD – which include increased risk of several chronic diseases and conditions that can result in premature mortality, which means death before average age of life expectancy.
However, very few people make the connection between PTSD itself and increased rates of aging, which implies an association between PTSD and lost years of life. In fact, that’s something mental health professionals rarely mention at all: mental health disorders can increase risk of chronic illness, which in turn can increase risk of premature mortality, or early death.
Providers generally avoid making those connections because a core component of mental health treatment is hope. When people are genuinely optimistic and hope that treatment will make their lives better, outcomes improve. That’s one reason providers don’t lead with discussions of mortality: it’s not a tone that promotes the kind positivity needed for successful treatment.
However, the results of a large-scale meta-analysis and review conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (USVA) called “PTSD & Accelerated Aging: Scientific Advances over the Last Decade” identify connections between PTSD and aging that are important for patients and providers alike to earn about and understand.
Let’s take a look at what’s in the VA report.
PTSD and Aging: How PTSD Can Make You Age Faster
One thing that makes this information relevant and reportable is its size and scope. The study used information from the VA Million Veteran Program (MVP), an ongoing research effort that includes bank of DNA records, data from surveys, and the electronic health records of over a million veterans of the U.S. armed forces, which includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and National Guard.
Researchers identified facts in three areas associated with aging and mortality: chronic and age-related disease, epigenic aging, and transcriptional aging. Epigenetic aging and transcriptional aging are terms from DNA research we’ll explain below.
First, let’s look at what researchers reported about the presence of a PTSD diagnosis and age-related disease and chronic disease:
- PTSD associated with a 32% increased risk of “cardiovascular events and conditions”
- PTSD identified as a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD)
Next, they found causal connections between PTSD diagnosis and epigenetic aging.
PTSD and DNA: Evidence for Accelerated Epigenetic Aging
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and their resource Epigenetics, Health, and Disease: Genomics and Your Health:
“Epigenetics refers to the way your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Epigenetics turns genes ‘on’ and ‘off.’ Your epigenetics change as you age, both as part of normal development and aging and because of exposure to environmental factors that happen over the course of your life. Epigenetic changes can affect your health in different ways.”
Your epigenetic age, therefore, is your age, as measured by methylation of your DNA and does not always align with your biological age. A person with an epigenetic age lower than their chronological age may have lived a healthy lifestyle characterized by low stress, healthy eating, exercise, and mindfulness. On the other hand, a person with an epigenetic age higher than their chronological age may have experienced chronic disease or conditions such as obesity, or engaged in behaviors such as tobacco use or alcohol consumption that can accelerate epigenetic aging.
In the VA study, researchers found:
- People with severe PTSD severity showed more advanced epigenetic age compared to their chronological age.
- In studies on twins, the twin with PTSD showed advanced epigenetic age compared to their chronological age and their twin.
- Severe PTSD was associated with “accelerated aging across military and civilian cohorts.”
- Studies that measured epigenetic aging at more than one time point showed that the presence of PTSD “predicted an increased pace of epigenetic aging over time.”
Here’s how the authors of the study characterized the information on epigenetic aging and PTSD:
“Collectively, these highlighted studies underscore that evidence for associations between PTSD and advanced cellular aging, as measured via epigenetic age algorithms, is largely replicable across age algorithms, cohorts, PTSD measurement approaches, and study designs.”
In addition, a study on first responders from the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11/2001 showed associations between PTSD and advanced transcriptomic age. Scientists assess transcriptomic age by measuring factors associated with DNA transcription, or copying, which is an ongoing aspect of DNA function, and like epigenetic aging, is a reliable way of comparing chronological and biological aging.
Research also shows a connection between advanced transcriptomic age and biomarkers for inflammation and impaired immune function, both of which are related to the consequences of chronic, PTSD-related stress and dysfunction.
What Does This All Mean? Can Treatment Help?
This means untreated PTSD is associated with increased aging on a cellular level. For people with PTSD, their families, and their treatment providers, this information elevated the necessity of effective, evidence based treatment for PTSD, and more research on this specific topic. Again, we refer to insight offered by the study authors:
“Studies evaluating interventions with health behaviors to improve both PTSD and age-related health parameters and those examining changes in biological aging metrics as a function of PTSD psychotherapy will be challenging to conduct but are important next steps”
In the meantime, two studies show that the accelerated methylation-related epigenetic aging may be reversible with changes in diet and behavior:
- Over a two-year period in a cohort of over 200 middle-aged women, increases in consumption of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and fish, paired with reductions in red meat, sweets, and alcohol, reduced the acceleration of epigenetic aging.
- Another two-year study on young and middle-aged adults with no health problems showed a similar reduction in the acceleration of epigenetic aging.
That research is promising, for people with and without PTSD, and people with PTSD worried that having PTSD can make them age faster. The primary takeaway from the VA research, however, carries a serious warning. The study authors observe:
“PTSD may lead to more years of health decline and disease, lost work and productivity, and shortened lifespan.”
If you or someone you know has PTSD, we encourage you – and them – to seek professional support as soon as possible. The earlier a person who needs treatment for PTSD gets treatment, the better the outcome.
