How to Preserve your Youthful Look

Looking young and fresh isn’t all about your arms and legs but also your skin. Research has proven that the appearance of a woman’s hands, chest, and arms has great impacts on how young or old she is perceived to be. As established earlier, aging is inevitable. However, you can put off the process as long as possible. This chapter will pinpoint ways you can maintain your youthful look and slow the aging process.

Avoid Sun Exposure

It’s not possible to totally avoid sun exposure due to its importance. Nonetheless, it’s vital to stay out of the sun as much as possible because of the effect it has on your health. Experts suggest that sun exposure is responsible for 90% of the skin’s obvious signs of aging. As stated earlier, excessive sun exposure causes age spots, early appearance of wrinkles, and uneven skin tone.

Apart from skin problems, excessive exposure to the sun can increase your temperature, leading to fever. It can also lead to dehydration, which makes the skin dry and increase the risk of premature aging due to the appearance of wrinkles. So, you have a lot to lose when you have a habit of staying under the sun a lot.

Wear Sunscreen

Due to the fact that you’ll have to go under the sun at one point or the other, it’s crucial that you protect your skin. Therefore, you need to wear sunscreen. UV light can be in the form of UVA and UVB rays, but none is beneficial. When you wear a quality sunscreen with an SPF rating of 50 and above, you’ll be able to protect yourself from these dangerous rays.

Ensure that what you are getting is a broad-spectrum sunscreen because it can keep out both UVA and UVB rays. Note that the sun’s rays are out regardless of the visibility of the sun every day. So, endeavor to wear sunscreen daily. Besides, you need to reapply it every few hours for maximum protection..

Mental Health and Aging

Is there a link between mental health and aging? The answer isn’t straightforward. There are various considerations when exploring this topic. Studies have shown that over 20% of people above the age of 55 in the US experience one type of mental health issue or the other. The most common psychological issues among this population are anxiety, mood disorders, and severe cognitive impairment. This chapter will leverage research and anecdotal data to discuss the association between mental health and aging to give you a better insight regarding the link.

Mental Health is Crucial

Unknown to many people, your mental health is as important as your physical health. In fact, you cannot separate the two because they affect one another in multiple ways. Moreover, some symptoms are common to both physical and mental issues. For example, loss of appetite is common in both cases.

According to the World Health Organization, you are not healthy until your mental, physical, and social well-being are in good states. Poor mental health
will affect your rate of healing from physical illness and also make you prone to substance abuse. So, you can be confident that mental health issues will speed up the aging process, just like physical challenges.

Mental Health Challenges aren’t Norms for Older Adults

As stated earlier, depression isn’t a normal part of aging. However, depression isn’t the only mental health concern that is not a norm for older adults. Anxiety disorders are also for both young and old. Indeed, research has shown that seniors are more susceptible to psychological problems.

A study showed that around six percent of older adults in the US have a diagnosable depressive illness. Nonetheless, research shows that one in four American adults is battling one mental health concern or the other. So, the issue isn’t restricted to older adults... 

Things That Are Making You Age Faster

We are beginning to get to the part of the book you have been waiting for. As stated earlier, aging is inevitable. However, there are some habits that can speed up the process.

Your genes play a vital role in the way you look and feel as you get older. Nonetheless, there are some things that have adverse impacts on your health and youthfulness. This chapter will highlight and explore them.

Stress

We cannot live without stress, especially in the modern world. However, it’s crucial that we understand how to cope with it. Failure to effectively manage stress can lead to various illnesses such as depression, insomnia, anxiety, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Nonetheless, it’s not a popularly known fact that stress can accelerate the aging process. Stress causes inflammation in the body, which leads to damages in various parts. It also affects skin fibers, thereby making the skin look lifeless and dull as it loses its natural luminosity.
Moreover, stress damages the cellular structure of the body. So, it causes premature aging of the cells. Due to the adverse impacts of stress on the aging process, it becomes sacrosanct to understand techniques for managing stress effectively.

Mindfulness is one of the most common methods of easing tension. This practice makes you calmer and helps you to have a clearer thinking pattern. Yoga is also a helpful practice in this regard. Incorporate this practice into your daily routine to improve your overall health and the quality of your life.

Sun Exposure and Tanning

The sun is the ultimate source of heat and light in the world. It is essential to growth and other vital processes on earth. However, excessive exposure to it can affect us in various ways. For example, the ultraviolet rays of the sun can damage the elastic fibers of the skin.

 These elastic fibers are responsible for holding the skin firm in shape. Therefore, any damage to them will lead to the sagging of the skin and other unpleasant effects. It can also lead to wrinkles appearing on the skin as it speeds up the aging process.

Therefore, you’ll be helping yourself in many important ways when you avoid exposing your skin to sunlight. Note that sunlight isn’t always harmful. For example, the sun is a source of Vitamin D. Nonetheless, it is only beneficial in the early parts of the day.

Continuous exposure to sunlight can lead to dark spots appearing on your face, hands, and other exposed part of your body... 

Benefits of Youthfulness and Good Health

Why are we afraid of aging? There are many answers to this question. In this chapter, we will explore the benefits you stand to enjoy when you devote yourself to anti-aging techniques and healthy living. This is the penultimate chapter before we start highlighting and discussing tips that can help you slow the aging process and improve the quality of your life. The aim of this section is to give you more than enough reasons you should do all you can to commit to healthy living.

Attractive Appearance

When you compare the picture of an old person and a young individual, it is clear that you prefer to stay young and fresh. However, a youthful appearance doesn’t happen by chance, especially as you advance in age. As you grow older, your muscles will grow weaker, and the glow on your skin will grow duller. So, you will have to do more to ensure that you don’t look haggard as you grow older.

There’s such a thing as aging gracefully. It’s a situation in which you are still in good health and active despite your old age. There’s no doubt that you don’t want to be one of those elderly people that are looking haggard and frail. It gets so bad that some of their loved ones might not want them to appear in their pictures. In some backward cultures, children refer to such seniors as “witches,” especially women.

Your situation doesn’t have to be like that. Nonetheless, it’s not all about wishing that you won’t experience such ridicule and discrimination. You have to be deliberate to ensure that you appear elegant even in your old age. You will find helpful tips that can help you in this regard in the subsequent chapters...

Signs of Premature Aging

You cannot know when you need to solve a problem until you know the signs that show that you are encountering the challenge. If you are observant enough, you’ll be able to tell when you are aging faster than expected. The fact that you have grey hair doesn’t mean that you are experiencing premature aging. It can be due to heredity. This chapter will highlight the common signs of premature aging. The essence of this is to spur you to action so that you can arrest the decline as soon as possible.

Gaunt Hands

It‘s expected that the top layers of your skin will contain fewer structuring proteins, such as collagen. As a result, your skin will become thinner, and the shape will be affected. However, it might come too early. The hands might start appearing more thin, veiny, and prone to wrinkles. If you start noticing these signs in your early thirties, you need to act fast. They usually appear in the early forties or late thirties in some cases.

If you notice these signs, start moisturizing your skin regularly. You can also consider a new product that can help you lock hydration into your skin barrier. Alternatively, you can apply sunscreen with at least 50 SPF to your hands. It’s vital that you apply it frequently until you get the desired result. Exfoliation is also an effective option. It’s the removal of dry, dead skin to improve your appearance.
Use a simple mixture of lemon and sugar to tone and exfoliate your skin. You can also consider lemon juice mixed with an over-the-counter topical bleach treatment. In most cases, you should have fresher and younger skin after these treatments. Nonetheless, if you don’t see improvements, don’t hesitate to speak to a skincare expert. ..

Common Aging Myths

Your chances of reducing your rate of aging decrease when you are living your life based on conjectures regarding this aspect. Unfortunately, there are many myths out there that have stayed so long that people believe that they are facts. This chapter is devoted to debunking the most common five to help you see aging in a new light.

Myth #1: All Elderly People Lose Their Teeth

There is no doubt that you must have seen old people who have lost most or all of their teeth before. However, it is not a phenomenon only restricted to people in the latter part of their lives. You can boost your chances of keeping your oral health by taking good care of your teeth. For example, Canadians have one of the best oral health when compared to the citizens of other developed countries.

A study carried out in the country showed that the oral health of Canadian seniors is improving. Approximately 20% of Canadians aged 60-79 are edentulous or have “sans teeth,” according to a Canadian Health Measures Survey. In other words, over 80% of Canadian seniors have their dental set
intact! Shocking, isn’t it? This research also shows that around 32% of Canadians don’t have dental insurance. This study shows that most people in this nation are concerned about their oral health.

Therefore, it is not shocking that most of the elderly people in the country have commendable oral health. There is no doubt that your hygiene and habits play a role in the aging process. So, if you want to age gracefully, you need to have a culture of regular checkups. Besides, you shouldn’t hesitate to complain to your physician if you have health concerns. You should apply the same principle when yu have dental issues. Speak to a professional as soon as possible... 

Aging and Anti-Aging: What is it?


Many people wish they can be like Hydra, a relative of the jellyfish, who have a regenerative system that makes them immortals. If only wishes were horses… The reason we age remains a myth that hopelessly offers no answer. Many turn to religion such as Christianity that explains that we age because sin came into the world through one man, and creation is since then destined to suffer corruption.

A typical atheist wouldn’t agree, but no other explanation seems to offer any hope. We seem to be all destined to live in our bodies for a while and abandon it, or it ejects us at some point, which leads to death. In this opening chapter, we will explore the aging process and some of the most common aging theories, as well as anti-aging.

Types of Age

There are different types of age, depending on certain considerations. There are situations where a 45year-old woman is dating a 25- year-old man. Many people will find this match disturbing and unethical. However, for people who see age as just a number, they wouldn’t see anything absurd about the relationship. Below are the various perspectives of viewing age.

Chronological Age

This is the most common type of age. It is defined as the number of years a person has lived in this world. This implies that chronological age depends on the earth’s revolutions around the sun. It is counted in days, months, and years. When people ask you how old you are, you tell them your chronological age.

Experts posit that chronological age is a limited way of looking at people because it doesn’t offer enough information about a person. It is also difficult to predict. When you look at some people, you would assume that they are in their early sixties due to how they look. However, you might be surprised that they are in their late forties. This shows that there should be other factors or ways of looking at people.

Biological Age

This type of age describes the development of an individual based on biomarkers. A biomarker is a significant cellular or molecular event. In other words, biological age involves looking at people based on how they are rather than when they were born. In most cases, humans follow the same biological path.

A good example of a biomarker is the onset of puberty. More complicated ones include the increase of sex hormones, increase in human growth hormone, and myelination events in the brain. It also involves the degradation of certain tissues in the body as a person grows older. So, biological age is all about the body....

Leave Your Skin Alone For the Best Anti-Aging Effects!

When we say leave your skin alone, we don’t mean abandon your skin care regimen, though getting rid of some of the harsher scrubs in your collection will certainly do good for you. What we mean is that horrible temptation that many may feel to pick at blemished skin. Poking at our pimples can leave us with pockmarks and other scars that can end up being downright embarrassing and making us look far older than we actually are. So don’t do it!

If you are troubled by acne, it could do you well to speak with a dermatologist about your condition. Rather than trying to deal with it on your own with scrubs that may not work or picking at your face, you could find yourself with a skin care routine that is actually going to help you to keep your skin in the best possible condition with the technology available rather than leaving you alone with the temptation to take care of your blemishes with a little bit of tough love.

There are also other things that many people have done and will testify to when it comes to skin care to clear up the skin and prevent break outs that might tempt you to create pockmarks on your face. It can be helpful for you to drink the proper amount of water. Doing so helps to eliminate toxins and free radicals from the body rather than allowing them to pool on the skin. It is also important to make sure that you clean your skin off after you sweat. The bacteria and the other toxins in the skin will just sit on the surface and fester there, accumulating more germs and dirt there that can lead to break outs.

You might also want to get yourself tested for food intolerances and allergies that could cause you to break out. The less temptation you have to deal with your skin issues in a way that will damage your skin, the better. So start by addressing the issue at its source!

It’s better not to pick at your skin if you can help it. While it may seem difficult, and indeed, for some it can be, doing everything possible to treat your skin gently and with care will go a long way. Over time, we notice more and more things that we have done that could have been preventable, so try to avoid more damage to your skin by taking a hands-off approach and stopping the issue at the source today!

Tips on Quitting Smoking for Anti-Aging Benefits

It is no secret that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. There have been warnings from the Surgeon General’s office for decades now warning us of the health consequences of smoking. Cancer and lung disease, among other things, are some of the negative effects of smoking, and they can be clearly seen printed on the packs of cigarettes that are available at stores nationwide.

What is not as widely spoken about, however, is the negative effects that smoking can have on our appearance. Not only does the nicotine from cigarettes stain our teeth yellow, but the fact that smoking actually causes our blood vessels to constrict and decrease blood flow can contribute to wrinkles and other issues further on down the line.

Not only is smoking dangerous for our health, but it is also dangerous for our appearance. It can make us smell unappealing to others, reduce our circulation, contribute to the fast development of wrinkles, make our teeth look bad, and cause diseases like heart disease, lung disease, osteoporosis, eye diseases, diabetes and other varied respiratory problems.

There is also the issue that smoking can make our muscles fatigue more easily, so getting the exercise that is recommended to improve our circulation and maintain muscle mass as we grow older is far more difficult if we have a nicotine addiction. There are so many health concerns related to smoking that it is difficult to justify continuing!

However, quitting smoking is easier said than done, but there are a few tricks that we can use to help ourselves to stay on track. First, remember that you don’t actually need to smoke. Quitting smoking is difficult because we can talk ourselves into the mindset that we need a cigarette. But truthfully, it is just physical addiction talking, along with a difficulty in dealing with stressors in our daily lives. Finding other ways to cope with stress can be very effective in helping us to quit smoking once and for all.

Another thing that helps is to find distractions. It only takes a few weeks of not smoking before you physically kick the habit. You can try and utilize your time by doing things that are enjoyable and personal to you so that when you suffer from irritability, you are not taking things out on others. Things such as taking walks, being active, reading, writing, or playing games can be great ways to keep your mind occupied while trying to quit smoking.

One final but very helpful tip is to have something handy to keep your hands busy or to put in your mouth when you are craving the physical sensation of a cigarette. By this we’re not talking about vaping or electronic cigarettes. Rather, try something a little different. Mints, healthy candies, or even stress balls can work wonders! It is also helpful for some to use straws with a little piece of cotton inside to emulate smoking without actually smoking.

Whatever the case, try to implement these tips today to help you to live your healthiest life and avoid speeding up the sings of aging once and for all!

Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight to Prevent Premature Aging

It is no secret that when we are eating a poor diet, that there are going to be negative health effects. However, something that most people don’t think about is how these choices in diet might affect us in the future. When we gain weight and load our bodies up with unhealthy, processed foods that are full of sodium, fat, and sugar, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

A poor diet can set us up for health issues down the line, but one thing it also does that many people might not consider is give us the appearance of being older than we actually are. While it is very important to avoid the health consequences of unhealthy dieting, it is also something worth considering. If we want to appear younger and maintain our vitality in our every day lives, excess weight gain will only old us back.

It’s extremely important that we are able to feel comfortable, confident, and happy in our bodies. And there is no shame in having a little bit of extra body weight. However, it becomes an issue when our body weight is a reflection of a poor diet that is going to age us prematurely and give us health issues in the future. It is also important not to over-do it with sugar. Sugar doesn’t just make it easy to pack on the pounds – it can also be bed for your oral health an it can actually cause wrinkles and decrease the collagen in our skin, which helps it to stay elastic. With poor collagen production, our skin has a tendency to speed up in its aged appearance and can lack elasticity, which can cause breaks in the skin, wrinkles, and other blemishes like stretch marks.

Sugar, like other foods such as red meat, fried eggs, and other dairy products like cheeses, butter, etc.,  is also related to Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). This means that these foods can also contribute to poor collagen production and a lack of elasticity in the skin, which can cause us to appear much older than we really are.

Overall, living a healthy lifestyle is important for many reasons and in many ways. Do everything you can to be conscious of the things that you are putting into your body so that you are able to know with confidence that you are doing everything possible to prevent aging prematurely in your own life and avoid diseases that are completely preventable, but not always reversible!

Keeping this in mind, taking an active role in consuming healthy foods and avoiding excess sugar is a great way to prevent premature aging and prepare yourself for a long and happy life, starting now!