Take back years and rejuvenate: 6 pieces of advice for anti-aging

Regarding age, the majority of people think, “If I could just turn back time”.  But the truth is, we can self-sabotage the aging process with our daily habits.  This is both regarding poor dietary habits as well as lack of sleep or exercise.  The good news is that with just a few simple steps, you can reverse this process in a short amount of time.  It is never too late to change your ways.  The results you will achieve will be so good that you won’t want to stop, because you’ll feel a huge different between how you feel now and how you will feel once you follow these:

6 pieces of advice for anti-aging

1. Eating sweets makes you older

Eating a lot of sugar has a lot of serious health consequences because sugar turns into fat once it is absorbed into the blood stream.  Reducing your consumption of sweets if very effective when trying to lose weight.

Sugar also spoils skin, just like sun and tobacco.  It also causes wrinkles.  This is because of a process that occurs when the skin produces sugar to join collagen and elastin, making the skin look older.

Advice for rejuvenating

The best thing you can do is to limit your consumption of processed foods.  If you are a woman, you must limit your sugar consumption to 25 grams a day.  Fiber reduces sugar absorption, so consuming whole foods can help.

Whenever you feel a craving to eat sugar, you’re probably thirsty.  Try to substitute your craving for a glass of water.  If that doesn’t help, you could eat a bit of dark chocolate or a few berries.

2. Working too much ages people

Studies have supported that if you have a job that you don’t like, or if it takes up too much of your time, this could increase your risk for heart diseases and accelerate cellular aging.  The same is true when you don’t exercise enough, eat healthy, or sleep the necessary hours.

Over time, chronic stress combined with aging damages brain functions.  The hippocampus, where memories are formed, shrinks, which reduces capabilities involving coordination, planning, etc.

Advice for rejuvenating

If there’s no way to remove stress from your life, like having a difficult boss or a heavy work load, create a list of things that make you feel happy: think about nice things, reduce your stress levels, and relax.  Try to eliminate complaints for one week and substitute them with thoughts of gratitude.  Think about how you’ve been able to achieve your dreams and goals, and you’ll notice that this will motivate you to withstand any stress.  You could even go to therapy to help liberate a bit of the load that makes you age quicker.

3. Eliminate harmful fats

After 30 years of age, women loose approximately 5% of their muscle mass every decade and the only thing that can be done to revert this is constant exercise.  Strength training is perfect for bone density, and it increases energy and strength.  It can help improve your flexibility as well, thereby contributing to better posture, more flexible joints, and a more agile body.  This will provide you with a more active lifestyle as you grow older.

Advice for rejuvenating

Your objective should be at least 20 minutes of resistance training three times a week, using weights or bands, yoga, sit-ups, etc.  A little bit of exercise will provide much better results, both in health and physical aspect, in just a short amount of time.

4. Lack of sleep ages people

Sleeping 8 hours a day is not a luxury, it is necessary.  Lack of lseep releases cortisol, which can age you both internally as well as externally.

“Consistence is key”, one study found that when comparing different study subjects, the amount of sleep they received over a period of fiver years after middle-age was associated with increased cognitive deterioration equal to four to six years of aging!

Advice for rejuvenating

Ideally, try to sleep uninterrupted for 7 to 8 hours a night to allow your body to repair itself.  This is important for healing, memory, skin elasticity, cortisol levels and metabolism.

If you have problems sleeping, try to take a hot bath before going to bed and always do this at the same time, so as to make your body grow accustomed to it.  Or, you could try non-addictive natural remedies to get to sleep, but do not look this problem over, because it could be very harmful.

5. Excessively cutting fats ages people

As women age, they generally reduce their dietary fat with the intention of reducing calories, but you must not forget that some fats are good, and even indispensable, for keeping skin healthy and flexible, and for increasing  life changes, for example, omega-3 fatty acids.

Advice for rejuvenating

For better cognitive function, all you need to do is reduce saturated fats, which are found in butter and cheese, consume less vegetable oils, like corn, sunflower, or safflower, and instead, choose virgin olive oil, almonds, avocados, oily fish like salmon.  Changing your diet will benefit several health areas, like cardiovascular, digestive, immune and even your moods.

6. Sun exposure ages people

We all know that sun exposure provides us with Vitamin D, however, the sun today hits a lot stronger and we cannot be exposed as long as before, without suffering severe damage.  A lot of times these damages are not visible in the short term, but UV rays cause premature wrinkles, sun marks, damaged hair that is dry and brittle.  The sun is even capable of aging the interior of the body, even if it is covered by clothes.

Advice for rejuvenating

You must apply sunblock every day, even if you are only exposed for a little while.  The best are those that contain SPF 30 and which contain zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, because these are chemical free.  Sun block should be applied periodically throughout the day. Just one application will not free you from the sun’s negative effects.  You must not forget to wear sunglasses and a hat, and the appropriate clothing to prevent burns.  This will keep you younger, longer.

Obviously a lot of these tips are already well known, but if you combine them and are consistent, you will feel and looks younger for longer, and most of all, you will feel healthier with greater well-being.

Revised by: Dra. Loredana Lunadei on 05/18/2018

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