There's an epidemic of health-damaging chronic stress in this country. Fully 75% of people say they experience physical or emotional stress-related symptoms, and half report significant daily stress often focused on health concerns for themselves or a family member, world events, or finances.

No wonder people seem to be aging faster than ever.

Unmanaged chronic stress can make you feel decades older than your calendar age. That aging happens because of consistently elevated levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and surges in blood glucose, LDL cholesterol, and inflammation-causing proteins.

Chronic stress can also increase your risks for obesity, cancer, mental health disorders, cardiovascular disease, and susceptibility to infections.

In addition, you can experience symptoms such as high blood pressure, aches and pains, insomnia, cloudy thinking, emotional withdrawal or quick temper, fatigue, appetite changes, and/or increased use of alcohol and drugs to manage emotions.

How can you find a constructive way to deal with people, circumstances, and events that challenge your ability to cope?

It's essential to have a supportive posse of friends, family, and co-workers; a purpose that makes life's challenges worth it; and plenty of play, including hobbies, physical activity/exercise (300 minutes a week), and fun.

One major study showed that these steps can erase 30 years of premature aging.