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From supportive friendships to toxic colleagues, our relationships can shape our stress levels more than our jobs, finances, or even our diet and health habits. new study suggests that who we surround ourselves with can negatively affect our longevity. Scientists at Indiana University in USA conducted study on how people around us can impact stress in our lives. The researchers focused on effect people called "hasslers" had on us. A hassler is annoying individual who regularly hassles us. Lead researcher Professor Brea Perry said, "having more hasslers is associated with accelerated biological aging...and how much wear and tear [people] have on their body".

study is published in journal PNAS. Researchers questioned participants about difficult relationships in their lives to identify hasslers. Dr Perry found around one third of participants had at least one hassler in their social network. She said about 10 per cent had at least two hasslers. She suggested that each additional hassler was associated with 1.5 per cent faster pace of aging. Perry added: "It can actually take days for that stress response to drop and for your body to go back to normal." She highlighted adverse effects of accumulated stress from hasslers, saying: "When you experience that chronically, over and over again, it has this long-term effect on body."