Overthinking Can Shorten Your Life, Says New Study

Although it is one natural ability of human beings to think and it is what sets us apart from animals, but when you get overboard with thinking, it can get detrimental. A new study suggests that overthinking can shorten your lifespan.

The study conducted by the researchers at Harvard Medical School has found that excessive brain activity could decrease one’s lifespan. It involved individuals aged 60-70 years whose brains were compared to those who lived until they were 100 or more.

Their findings suggested that people who died at younger ages had significantly lower levels of the protein ‘REST’ (RE-1 silencing Transcription)- one that silences your brain activity. Precisely, the study showed that overthinking causes excessive brain activity which in turn leads to depletion in one’s REST protein levels and shortened lifespan. And that suppressing such overactivity extends life. Several other studies have also proved that REST protein offers protection against Alzheimer’s disease.

This is the first study to prove that the activity of the nervous system affects the longevity of human beings. Though several studies have previously reported the phenomenon among animals, the role of neural activity in human aging has remained murky until now.

The lead author Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics at HMS and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging said, “An intriguing aspect of our findings is that something as transient as the activity state of neural circuits could have such far-ranging consequences for physiology and life span.” He added that they now have several individuals enrolled in such studies to partition the aging population into genetic subgroups. He also opines that this information is invaluable and makes it evident as to why it's so important to support the future of human genetics.

The study has paved the way for designing new therapies for health conditions that are associated with neural overactivity including Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar diseases. The study results also create the possibility that meditation or medicines that can target REST protein could extend the human life span by modulating neural activity.

"The possibility that being able to activate REST would reduce excitatory neural activity and slow aging in humans is extremely exciting," said the study co-author Monica Colaiácovo, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.