Next time you're stressed out, maybe just grab someone you love for a cuddle session.
"It may just save your life," Mitchell Moffit, co-creator of the popular YouTube series ASAPScience, says in a new video. Check it out above.
The video spotlights some of the scary effects stress has on the human body: For one thing, there's evidence to suggest that it messes with your immune system, and may be involved in the development of cancer and other serious illnesses.
In other words, stress really can kill you.
"Too much of anything can kill you, really," Moffitt told The Huffington Post in an email. "But yes, there are a lot of harmful effects that come with stress, and without proper care and release, it can definitely lead to deteriorating mental and physical conditions, which can make you more susceptible to dying."
But there's hope for the perpetually stressed. The hormone oxytocin is known to curb the body's stress response -- and it's not called the "cuddle hormone" for nothing. Our bodies release oxytocin when we experience positive interactions with others. Nice.
Oxytocin "helps your blood vessels relax and even regenerates the heart from stress-related damage," Moffitt says in the video.
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