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It's with us every step of the way. It accompanies us no matter what we do or where we are. It comes and goes like the wind. It can either make our lives miserable and difficult or goad us into beating impossible odds. No, I'm not referring to my mother-in-law but something far more sinister: stress.

Stress is the new epidemic of modern man. It's here, there, and everywhere. It haunts everybody regardless of age, sex or position in life. It can be cold and cruel at times but it is a normal part of everyday life.

The effects of stress are numerous and can be felt immediately or over time. Stress can make you jumpy, irritable or interfere with your ability to concentrate. It can affect your thinking, behavior or mood. And if that's not enough, scientists have also found that stress can cause wrinkles.

While stress has long been blamed for fine lines and gray hairs, this has never been validated by the scientific community until now. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) discovered that it causes body cells to deteriorate.

Elisa Epel, UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry, and her team said that chronic stress reduces the length of telomeres ' the tips of chromosomes within cells. A short telomere means the cell has a short lifespan. As stress mounts and more cells die, the body deteriorates and aging sets in: muscles weaken, eyesight and hearing are affected, and wrinkles appear.

'Epel and her colleagues studied 39 women between the ages of 20 and 50 with children suffering from serious chronic conditions, like cerebral palsy, and compared them with 19 mothers in the same age group with healthy children. The longer a woman had been caring for a sick child, the shorter her telomere - and the greater her oxidative stress (a process that releases DNA-damaging free radicals),' reported Mary Carmichael and Jennifer Barrett Ozols in Newsweek.

With the knowledge that intracellular damage comes from stress, Epel's group hopes to find ways to reduce this damage and combat the signs of aging. She said that lifestyle changes and a positive outlook in life could have a dramatic effect on wrinkles and reverse DNA damage in the long run. Other doctors agree.

'While these results support a link between stress and cellular aging, the exact relationship of stress on aging is complex and isn't yet fully understood. However, stress certainly can have negative effects on physical and emotional health. Anyone concerned about developing wrinkles or other signs of aging would certainly be advised to practice a healthy lifestyle, which would include keeping stress levels under control,' said Dr. Melissa Conrad Stoppler in MedicineNet.Com.

As scientists delve more into the relationship between stress and wrinkles, beat the clock with a good skin care product that will repair and regenerate your skin to give you a more youthful appearance.