--- title: Toxic Stress Load Is the Biggest Barrier to Living Longer description: When stressful challenges become toxic, they can have profound effects on our life expectancy, write Tamen Jadad-Garcia and Dr. Alex Jadad. canonical: https://time.com/6255795/toxic-stress-life-expectancy-how-to-reduce/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-02-16T12:00:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:39.568Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Toxic Stress Load Is the Biggest Barrier to Living Longer. Here's How to Reduce It og:description: When stressful challenges become toxic, they can have profound effects on our life expectancy. og:url: https://time.com/6255795/toxic-stress-life-expectancy-how-to-reduce/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ea3dff6491d7bab/698a3a65011682ce19982bff/Stress-Illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1999 og:image:height: 1124 og:image:alt: Stress-Illustration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Toxic Stress Load Is the Biggest Barrier to Living Longer. Here's How to Reduce It twitter:description: When stressful challenges become toxic, they can have profound effects on our life expectancy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ea3dff6491d7bab/698a3a65011682ce19982bff/Stress-Illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Toxic Stress Load Is the Biggest Barrier to Living Longer. Here's How to Reduce It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: 'Ted Lasso' Cast Visits White House to Promote Mental Health Care [Watch (HLS stream): 'Ted Lasso' Cast Visits White House to Promote Mental Health Care](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uuNGPKtK.m3u8) (2:39)  _Published 2023-03-20. Fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso used a White House visit Monday to encourage people, even in politically divided Washington, to make it a point to check in often with friends, family and co-workers to “ask how they’re doing, and listen, sincerely,”_ by [Tamen Jadad-Garcia](https://time.com/author/tamen-jadad-garcia/) and [Dr. Alex Jadad](https://time.com/author/dr-alex-jadad/) Feb 16, 2023 12:00 PM UTC  Lonely and sad stands a suffering man in a crowd of people walking by. Lonely and sad stands a suffering man in a crowd of people walking by. Getty Images by [Tamen Jadad-Garcia](https://time.com/author/tamen-jadad-garcia/) and [Dr. Alex Jadad](https://time.com/author/dr-alex-jadad/) Feb 16, 2023 12:00 PM UTC Each person has a powerful combination of characteristics that influence their chances of living a long life. A 2019 study by the City Health Dashboard analyzed the data from the 500 largest cities in the U.S. provides a case in point: [a baby born in the Streeterville community of Chicago](https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/blog-media/1137), in 2015, could live to be 90 years old, while the life expectancy of another baby born just eight miles away, in the Englewood neighborhood, was 60 years. In the Englewood neighborhood, where the life expectancy was 30 years less, 97% of the population is Black and 47% live below the poverty line. Meanwhile in Streeterville, where the residents were living longer, 78% of the residents are white or Asian, with a high income. The same study showed that in 55 other cities—including New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.—some people could also expect to live up to 30 years less than their neighbors. At the time, this difference was the same as for people living in [Monaco and the Central African Republic](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN), the countries with the longest and shortest life expectancy in the world. What was behind these stark differences? One larger factor is something we like to call the [Toxic Stress Load](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/healthy-no-matter-what-alex-jadad/1141407176?ean=9780593240823) (TSL). And it’s been hiding in plain sight for decades. The TSL is the term that describes the build up of negative physical and psychological changes that result from your ongoing need to respond to challenges. It is the baggage, the scars, and the tensions collected through life. When your TSL becomes overwhelming, it triggers changes in your body that are so profound that they are equivalent to accelerated aging. --- ### More from TIME --- **_Read More:_**[_6 Expert-Backed Ways To Manage Your Stress_](https://time.com/5401078/how-to-deal-with-stress-work-experts/) The TSL results from our study of the scientific evidence behind two well-researched and validated components. One is “[toxic stress](https://www.mhanational.org/sites/default/files/Impact%2520of%2520Toxic%2520Stress%2520on%2520Individuals%2520and%2520Communities-A%2520Review%2520of%2520the%2520Literature.pdf),” namely the physical and psychological response to long-term threatening situations or events, especially those that start in early childhood. The other is known as “[allostatic load](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763419309418?via%253Dihub),” which represents the physical price paid by being exposed to prolonged toxic stress. The term “toxic stress load” makes explicit that these two components come together, are generated by coinciding challenges, and compound each other. The TSL is what can, ultimately, [kill you prematurely.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7592151/) Nobody can escape the TSL. What is different, however, across people and communities, is the intensity, speed, duration, and frequency with which it accumulates—the specific sources and the way in which it influences a person’s overall longevity and health. Its effects begin before someone is born, inside the mother’s womb, and end at the time of their death. Each of us has multiple identities and labels, as well as changing life circumstances that interact constantly and simultaneously, which contribute to our TSL. This “simultaneity” of identities and labels is captured in the term “intersectionality,” which often focuses on the combined effects of gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, religion, nationality, and social status. Many of the factors that influence the intensity, frequency, duration, and manageability of the TSL are already in place even before a person is aware of their own existence. In sum, how you are labeled in terms of race, ethnicity, or immigration status has a significant impact on your life expectancy, with consistent disparities among different racial groups, both domestically and internationally, as was seen with the case with cities in the U.S., and between countries such as Monaco and the Central African Republic. The TSL touches people of every socioeconomic status, anywhere in the world. Business executives, for instance, tend to have a high social status, an advanced education, a comfortable financial situation, admirable resilience, and abundant resources at their disposal to protect their physical fitness, which would all normally set them up for a long and healthy life. This makes the results of a [90-year-long study](https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/dying-to-lead-how-reaching-the-top-can-kill-you-sooner) from Harvard University surprising, as it found that senior managers and executives experience a mortality penalty of around three to five years compared to employees lower in the organizational hierarchy. Many sources of TSL, however, vary through life, and can be changed. Those that tend to fluctuate and most affect your TSL are poor sleep, worries related to money, work, and family, and loneliness. Analysis of data from more than [3.4 million people](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29300743/) found that loneliness is associated with a 26% increase in the risk of premature death, equivalent to the effect of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. ​​These changeable sources are what usually increases the risks of building a dangerous TSL for individuals of any social status. Death by[ suicide among physicians](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673621015968) is one disturbing example. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that [one physician](https://www.acep.org/life-as-a-physician/wellness/wellness/wellness-week-articles/physician-suicide/) dies of suicide every day. Male physicians are[ 40% more likely](https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2295) to die by suicide, while female physicians have [double the risk](https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2295) of ending their own lives than their non-physician female counterparts in the general population. Although there is a dearth of data around physician suicide, there is suspicion that it emerges from [intersecting risk factors](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976146?reg=1&icd=login%5Fsuccess%5Femail%5Fmatch%5Fnorm#vp%5F1) such as high levels of psychological distress and burnout, sleep deprivation, and depression—compounded in many cases by racism and discrimination. Just as it is possible to learn about the risks from those who have the highest TSLs, it is also possible to gain insights from those who manage to live a long life. Research on these longest-lived humans, namely centenarians (those who live past 100 years of age) and “supercentenarians” (those who live beyond 110 years) provide valuable clues on how to keep the TSL at bay. Although they appear to have protective genetic, immunological, and hormonal factors special to them—or to have lived so long because of luck—[research on centenarians](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19038837/) and [supercentenarians](https://gerontology.wikia.org/wiki/Gerontology%5FResearch%5FGroup) has also identified several non-biological characteristics that could improve a person’s chances of getting to an advanced age. Some of these characteristics include a tendency to react with low anxiety to stressful conditions, eat in small amounts that trigger caloric restriction, maintain an ideal weight, exercise regularly, avoid smoking and excessive drinking. Most importantly, they are also actively engaged in community activities, and have close friends and strong social support systems. Rather than being found in isolated small towns of special mountainous regions or valleys, the longest-lived people tend to live in cities with at least 4 million inhabitants in warm and sunny climates, where the life expectancy at birth was already in the mid-70s or higher. Today, these characteristics might feel like a tall order to apply to your own life. Fortunately, there are some more practical, tangible ways to lessen your TSL. It’s important to focus on on [identifying the biggest contributors](https://t786vy0c7i8.typeform.com/to/IAi4CHYx) in your daily life. To do this, it’s worth reflecting on the following questions: What do you feel is the biggest contributor to your TSL? What do you think you need to improve your TSL? What kind of support do you need from others to reduce it? This, then, makes your efforts to manage it more feasible. Even if your levels are low, any reduction in your TSL can be protective. At any rate, regardless of your labels and identities, which might confer disadvantages or privileges, every day, you will encounter many mental, physical, and social challenges that you will have to overcome in order to thrive. Some you can immediately recognize and tackle. But it’s how you deal with them that makes the difference between a long and healthy life, and one that is cut short. ## Transcript Yeah, I did. I truly did not know it was going to be this one to win on the way here for better reasons than I was. But I just want to say that on behalf of myself everyone here with me today and the numerous other folks that that takes to make our show, Ted lasso, it is an honor to visit the White House and I have the opportunity to speak to the president and the first lady about the importance of mental health. It's like no matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter who you voted for. We all probably I assume we all know someone who has or have been that someone ourselves actually that's struggle. That spelled isolated so anxious that has felt alone and it's actually one of many things that the believe it or not that we all have in common as human beings. And so That means that we is it something that we can all, you know, and should talk about with one another or feeling that way? Or when we when we recognize that and someone feeling that way. So please, you know, we encourage everyone and ends. Big theme of the show is like to check in with your, you know, your neighbor, your coworker, your friends are family and that's how they're doing and and listen, sincerely, you know yummy you will ask questions for a living but you also listen for a living. So you know who my preaching to the choir? That is okay. And while it's easier said than done, we also have to know that we should be afraid to ask for help ourselves and that does take a lot. But you wanted something that has Negative stigma to it such as mental health, and it doesn't need to be that way. And if you can ask for that, help from a professional fantastic. If you need to be a loved one, equally as good in a lot of ways cuz it's sometimes you just need to let that pressure that the pressure valve release, the president's working on and is in his own team. Although his team is real, our team is make-believe, I don't know what. They're working, very hard to make sure that it's that, you know, that option is available to as many Americans as possible in this town. A lot of folks. Don't always agree, right? You don't always feel heard seen, listen to yes, but I truly believe that we should all do our best to help take care of each other. That's that's my own personal believe. I think it's something they would appear onstage please. And we talked about the editing room and everything in between, it just like the way they take care of one another. That is the wish fulfillment of the show. Army, plane coach and these guys being professional footballers. Do you know? That's that's that's a big part of the show. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6255795/toxic-stress-life-expectancy-how-to-reduce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6255795/toxic-stress-life-expectancy-how-to-reduce/"},"headline":"Toxic Stress Load Is the Biggest Barrier to Living Longer. 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