Davis The vast majority of the research in stress has demonstrated negative consequences on physical and mental health.
Stress is known to contribute to a variety of illnesses, and can exacerbate chronic illnesses.
The relationship between stress and the aging process is highly complex. On the one hand, although late life is generally considered to be a time of extreme stress, due to bereavement, the loss of social roles, and the advent of chronic illness and subsequent limitations on daily activities, the elderly tend to report fewer life events on standard inventories. It is true that the elderly tend to be more vulnerable to physical stressors. For example, the well-known decrease in the ability to regulate body temperature can make the elderly more susceptible to the effects of both cold and heat, as the recent epidemic of deaths among the elderly during last summer's heat wave sadly demonstrated. However, there is little evidence to suggest that the elderly are more vulnerable to psychosocial stressors.