Lifestyle

6 Tips for Aging Gracefully

March 18, 2021

Aging is a part of life, but the way in which you age can be altered. A great way to think about aging is to consider that there are two types of aging. These two types of aging are chronological aging and biological aging. Chronological aging is unavoidable and is simply the amount of time you have been alive. Biological aging on the other hand is a look into how well your body has handled the external stressors of the environment throughout your life. 

You have most likely met people in advanced age that simply seem youthful and you most likely underestimated their age. In this situation, their biological age is most likely much younger than their chronological age. This is the ideal that you should aim for to age gracefully. The opposite is most certainly possible too and is something to be avoided. 

To turn the clock back and give your body a younger biological age, you need to live a healthy lifestyle and take care of yourself. Below is a look at six tips to allow you to age gracefully. 

Regular Exercise

The enjoyment of exercise is a very polarizing subject. For some, exercise is a word that invokes a sense of dread and distaste while others get excited just thinking about it. While these two points of view differ, the benefits of exercise are irrefutable.

The evolutionary history of has typically included physical activity. Hunting and gathering food is no small task and early humans were required to utilize their bodies on a daily basis. It wasn’t until recent history that people have spent more time sedentary than active. Because of this, the human body is not well adapted to sedentary life and these conditions can bring about many different problems within the body and essentially accelerate biological aging. 

To counteract this, implementing routine exercise is important to let your body work like it was meant to. In fact, a Dallas study conducted in 1966 observed the physiological impacts of being bed ridden in addition to the effects of exercise. The study found that many different biomarkers indicative of aging decreased when participants exercised and increased when bed ridden. Since then countless other studies have provided irrefutable evidence that exercise is important in living a long and fruitful life. 

Healthy Food and Substance Intake

The things you put into your body have a direct impact on you and your body. Fueling your body with high quality and nutritious food is analogous to filling up a sports car with top tier fuel. Using the same analogy, consuming processed and preservative filled foods is like putting the bottom of the barrel fuel into that same car. While it may run okay initially, if you keep filling up with the poor quality cheap stuff it will ultimately lead to it running suboptimally and eventually lead to failure at some point.

While you are not literally a sports car, there are many takeaways that can be gained through this analogy. Eating a healthy and nutritious diet is a key component to aging well. Your body is constantly repairing and carrying out chemical processes. To operate efficiently, your body needs certain nutrients and vitamins obtained through your diet to carry out these processes. 

When you fuel your body with all of the nutrition it needs, you are giving it the best shot at aging gracefully. When you consume excessive amounts of alcohol, non nutritious food, and smoke you are holding your body back from proper functioning. In fact these items can cause you to have a slew of problems including erectile dysfunction

Having a good diet is the best way that you can age gracefully and avoid lifestyle associated conditions. Whether you are young or old, it is never too late to turn around your diet. Give your body the nutrition it deserves and make implementing a healthy diet into your life a priority. 

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is an incredibly important and often overlooked component of health. When people think about how they can improve their health, getting enough sleep typically is not the first thing people think of. Some people have even developed the notion that “sleep is for the weak'' and this is completely untrue. In fact a lack of sleep is more likely to make you weak due to its drastic inhibition of the immune system. Without the ability to properly fight off foreign invaders you are more likely to get sick. 

In addition to its role in proper immune function, getting enough sleep is linked to a better overall wellbeing. The benefits of this include better overall energy level, a healthy hormonal balance, improvements in cognitive abilities, and much more. According to the CDC, you should aim for seven or more hours of quality sleep per night. 

This can be easier said than done as going to sleep and staying to sleep is a constant struggle for some people. The best way that you can facilitate good sleep is to create good sleep habits like setting a consistent bedtime and wake up time. This simple tip can give you the ability to get better sleep which can help you to age more gracefully. 

Reduce Stress

While stress may seem like an entirely mental entity, in reality the body physically reacts to stress by secreting stress hormones that initiate processes throughout the body. These processes include slowing digestion, increasing heart rate, increasing respiration, and suppressing immune functions. These alterations are ideal for situations in which a stress needs an immediate response like those when you are in emanate danger. 

While the stress response is helpful in certain situations that require a flight or fight response, chronic stress is detrimental to your health and can accelerate aging. The stress hormones interact with many different tissues and cells within the body. When constantly bombarded with stress hormones, these tissues can face negative consequences leading to premature failures or issues.

While it would be nice to avoid stress entirely, it really isn’t a feasible option. To promote healthy aging you should find a stress management method that works for you to manage your stress in a healthy way. Finding an effective way to deal with a stressor can reduce the level of stress hormones and allow your body to function as it should and avoid premature aging. 

Annual Check-Ups

One of the largest issues in public health is the lack of preventative care and public acceptance of seeking routine medical checkups. Many people do not seek care until an issue presents itself. The problem with this method is that by the time an issue presents itself, it may be too late to cure. 

Taking a preventative approach and setting up routine visits with your doctor is a great way to ensure that your body is in tip top shape. If anything does raise a red flag during these routine checkups, there are typically more ways to tackle the issue because it was caught early on. 

With COVID-19 it may be difficult for you to consider going into a hospital or healthcare setting if you don’t absolutely have to. Reducing exposure is a critical component of getting past this pandemic and luckily an emerging branch of medicine known as telemedicine can give people the ability to seek medical expertise from the comfort and safety of their home.

Take Care of Yourself

Typically men that look good in their later years are those that took care of themselves throughout their life. Good skin and hair care is one way in which men can age better. Many men forgo self care routines as societal pressures can make these activities seem like they decrease your manliness. In reality, self care routines like hair care and skin care can make you appear more youthful and can give you the confidence boost you need to age better. 

One situation many men face is the male pattern baldness and thinning of hair. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these conditions, they can be outward indicators of aging and can make you look older than you are or feel. 

Finasteride is an oral medication that can help with male pattern hair loss, also known as androgenetic alopecia in the medical world. The FDA first approved finasteride in 1992 and since this approval, it has been utilized by many men to promote thicker hair growth in addition to preventing further thinning.

Another outwardly apparent indicator of aging are skin blemishes like dark spots and wrinkles. When trying to feel and stay youthful, it is important that you take care of your skin. The skin is the organ of the body that takes the brunt of the damage from the outside world. It is constantly bombarded by radiation, drieness, and physical abrasions. 

Taking care of your skin through a skin care routine and the use of sunscreen can give your skin the support it needs to function and look its best. 

Conclusion

In closing, aging gracefully is all about ensuring your body is at peak performance and health. Through the six tips above, you can get on your way to supporting your body to let it age gracefully!




SOURCES

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041046

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/androgenetic-alopecia/

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2012/020788s020s021s023lbl.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3256323/

https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/how_much_sleep.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400286/

https://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/preventive-care-schedule/