Healthy Aging Tips – How to Slow Aging
If you’re the type of person who would rather watch TV and eat all day long than giving your muscles a little more stretch, better think twice. Here’s the deal: this lifestyle speeds up aging. How? Well, inactivity accelerates aging in two ways: it decreases your muscle strength and gives you extra pounds.
Muscle meltdown
As you age, the quantity and strength of your muscle fibers diminish. Truth to the matter is, you lose two to four pounds of muscles every 10 years. Decreased number and strength of muscles causes your muscles to lose flexibility, losing your usual range of motion and optimal strength.
Lack of exercise is to blame. It was found out that not exercising for even just 7 days weakens your muscles significantly. In fact, if you don’t exercise for a month, you will lose almost 50% of your original muscle strength. Some people may not even notice their atrophied muscles because of the fatty buildup in their body. Blame that too to lack of exercise.
Gaining extra pounds
The simple logic here is that if you are inactive, you gain extra pounds, and extra pounds can age you. But hey, there’s a missing link. How does an increase in weight speed up aging?
Researchers have recently found out that as people become heavier and became more insulin resistant (a common side effect of being fat and heavy), their telomeres (strands of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protect the tip from destruction and classically shorten with age) shrank more than those of people who didn’t increase their weight and developed more insulin resistance, an apparent sign that the aging process was speeding up among overweight. Researchers suppose that the stress caused by increased weight and insulin resistance spawn inflammation and free radicals that damage cells. Simply put, a heavier body ages its own DNA.
The Solution
But the good news is, you can recover what you have lost and slice off what you have gained. Research clearly shows that a healthy lifestyle and exercise can help keep your DNA younger.
In studies, regular exercise has been proven to keep you from diabetes, muscle atrophy, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and heart diseases. Regular workout helps prevent hypertension, reduces body fat, raises High Density Lipoprotein (good cholesterol), lowers Low-Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol), improves circulation, keeps the bowel healthy, and regulates key hormones.
An anti-aging workout is best for you! This includes consistent cardio, yoga, and weight training.
You can do jogging, cycling, walking, and swimming for thirty minutes a day for about five times a week. Doing these of higher intensity everyday can be helpful in bringing more blood and oxygen to your brain. These activities also guard your heart by lowering blood pressure, reducing LDL, and keeping arteries flexible to improve circulation.
Lifting weights should also be part of your roster of activities. Weightlifting for 20 minutes a day, twice a week can be of great help in having strong bones, and muscles, which of course includes the heart. For beginners, 3-5 pound dumbbells will do.
Doing yoga is one of the best activities to fight stress. It relaxes the body, thereby, keeping stress from burning you out. It also protects the body against free radicals that break down the elasticity of the skin.
Exercise does not only keep you young, it also helps you sleep, firms you up, improves your mood, keeps you slim, and take note of this, charges up your sex life.
More Healthy Aging Tips
Stopping smoking
As early as 1800’s, it was already observed that smoking has detrimental effects on the skin. Two centuries later, people became more aware of this because these effects are evident among chronic smokers. Some of these consequences include premature lines and folds stemming from the corner of the eyes to the zygomatic area (in the aging process, wrinkles are a natural element , but smoking speeds this up); dry and leathery appearance of the skin; grey-pallor complexion; a haggard appearance; and some more.
These changes are brought about by the processes that a cigar’s ingredients bring about to the body. Nicotine, a vasoconstrictor (one that constricts the blood vessels), inhibit the smooth and easy flow of oxygen and nutrients to their destination. Nicotine also causes a diuretic effect on the body which causes a reduction of the skin’s moisture level, hereby making it tough and dry.
Carbon monoxide, a harmful component produced by smoking, has higher affinity to blood cells than oxygen. That means it reduces the amount of oxygen to many areas.
Smoking also contains a large number of free radicals that attack healthy cells and damage normal tissues.
Smoking reduces Vitamin A and collagen in the body. Vitamin A is used in the repairing function of the body. Collagen, on the other hand, is a protein that produces new and healthy skin.
Proper posture
Sitting up straight and putting shoulders back are very important for your health and appearance. A good posture can make you look slimmer, taller, and confident. Many regard people with correct posture as young, happy, and at ease with their disposition. A good posture can even give you an instant weight loss of
10 pounds in the eyes of others. Its benefits, by the way, are not just for the outside.
A correct posture primarily puts muscles, joints, bones, and your organs to where they are supposed to sit. It reduces the risk of having back and neck problems, arthritis, and other pains. A proper one too can help prevent the spine from becoming abnormally fixed which can lead to fatigue, headaches, and some problems with organs and functioning. With a proper posture, one can also experience less strain because one wouldn’t overuse his muscles.
Stretching hourly and practicing the proper posture every hour can help strengthen the muscles that will be needed to hold the body erect.
Having sex at least three times a week
A 10-year study indicated that couples who are in their 40’s who have sex at least three times a week look younger than those who enjoy it less often. The study even indicated that the faces of these couple have less lines and wrinkles, and have smoother and suppler skin. They credited this to the wonders of Oxytocin. It is a hormone released during sex that reduces stress. Having sex at nighttime is helpful, too! It helps you to have a tight sleep so body is more rested.