When you’re young, “aging” is the least of your concerns. You wake up every morning full of energy. You don’t have any aches or pains and you can run your fingers through a thick head of hair and get on with your day. The reality is, though, time waits for no-one. Before you know it your age will creep up on you. The good news is, there’s a lot you can do to ensure you age healthy and with vigor. How you age is more important than what age you are.
Are you aging faster than you should?
To be fair, the way one person ages will be completely different from how someone else ages. Genetics also plays a role. With that, it also means that some people don’t show signs of aging until later on in life while others start to show signs of aging before they’ve reached the “age-appropriate” age to show physical signs they’re growing old!
Age from the inside out
Ideally you should take your health seriously from as young as possible. But there are so few who do. Realistically speaking then, when your body starts to age before you do, that’s when you cannot ignore this any longer, if you want to age well. The earlier you start taking better care of yourself, the better, no matter how young you feel. That’s not saying you should go out and quickly get Botox injections or engage in any type of major surgery. Of course these will help you look younger, but they are purely external remedies. Importantly, you have to work from the inside to ensure longevity.
Most of the time, simple lifestyle changes and what you consume can significantly change how your body ages…
Here are some of the biggest signs that let you know your body is aging before you.
Signs Your Body is Physically Older Than You
You Start to Forget Things
Forgetfulness is something that happens to the best of us. However, it’s no reason to diagnose yourself with a neurological disorder… yet! Everyone tends to forget where they parked their car in the mall parking lot or misplaced their glasses when they’re on their face. Importantly, don’t panic. Only if you start to notice these occurrences happening more frequently than normal, should you consult a neurologist. In the meantime, check your diet. Get a DNA test done if you can, which will help guide your dietary requirements. Then eat foods that enhance your brain health and memory, and boost with supplements like Co-Enzyme Q10 and Omega 3. Read more on nootropics and how to boost your brain health here:
What can you do?
Prevention is key. Take measures to boost your brain now. Incorporate daily exercise and engage in simple brain exercises or use specific aging supplement with nicotinamide mononucleotide, or other “brain-rich” supplements. The earlier you make the effort, you’ll be able to protect the health of your brain in the future.
You Notice Fine Lines and Wrinkles
Fine lines and wrinkles are some of the biggest tell-tale signs of age. With fine lines and wrinkles, we’re not just talking about the ones that appear when you smile or frown either… we’re talking about the ones that are still apparent when you’re not making any facial expressions. The good news is that although wrinkles are bound to happen, that doesn’t mean you can’t delay them from appearing on your face and body.
Look after your skin
You can protect your skin by limiting your exposure to the sun’s harmful rays, wearing sunscreen, eating dark chocolate, and drinking lots of water. Use skin care products that do not have tons of toxic chemicals in them, but keep your skin naturally hydrated and enhance its elasticity. Of course there are many non-invasive and invasive skin routines to address skin aging, such as Botox. fillers, skin peels and even surgery.
You Start Bruising More Easily
Once upon a time you could bump your leg on the corner of a table and it hardly hurt and you never bruised. This changes with age. Bruising is a prominent sign of premature aging. This is especially true when it takes that bruise longer to heal. Always keep some naturally effective bruising creams or remedies on hand, like Arnica, to help your body heal quickly.
Aging means it becomes harder to lose weight
It’s always easier to gain weight than to lose it. This applies to anybody. However, as you get older, usually in your early to mid-30s, it gets even harder to lose weight. Where you carry the weight will also impact your health risk. A study from the European Heart Journal revealed that women that carry fat in their torso area are more likely to develop heart disease than women who carry fat in their legs!
Try to manage your weight as you age
Ideally, you don’t want to carry fat at all, right? But it’s inevitable. The older you get, the slower your metabolism becomes.
Pikul Noorod/Shutterstock
With age, we also become naturally more inactive. We need to be mindful of this and ensure a regular exercise routine. When you don’t exercise, your muscles atrophy and start to shrink. You will lose skin tone and you will feel more lethargic. Your height will decrease, and your midsection will significantly expand.
Exercise is anti-aging medicine
There are so many studies that prove the power of exercise. People who exercise are much healthier than their sedentary counterparts. Moderate exercise daily is the key to longevity. Find an exercise you love and do it. The older you get, the more you need to work on strength building exercises, weight and resistance training. Aerobic exercises like cycling and swimming are excellent as they are not weight-bearing. Pilates has been proven to improve tone and muscle strength.
You Experience Hair Loss
Most of us fear losing our hair. It is such a critical part of most people’s image. Hair loss can be attributed to a lot of factors like generics, certain medications, health conditions, hormone imbalances and stress. A big contributor to hair loss is also age-related as well. It may not show up as losing big clumps of hair but it’s very common to notice more shedding and thinning in certain areas.
No miracle cure for hair loss
There is no miracle cure for hair loss yet. There are many natural treatments that can help slow hair loss and depending on the cause and extremity of it, in some cases it can be reversed.
You will find a plethora of shampoos, creams and supplements. A growing number of surgical interventions are being developed. Some more than others are achieving results. The reality is the earlier you deal with any hair loss issues, the better the long term prognosis. Seek expert opinion when it occurs at a young age.
Your hair is going gray
Graying of your hair is another tell-tale sign that your body is aging faster than you. You can remedy this with hair color if you are too young to gray, or you can embrace the change in your life. The choice is yours. Biotin is a helpful supplement to help strengthen your hair skin, and nail vitamins. There are also an array of foods that are good for you. Read more hair advice here:
Final thoughts
While aging is inevitable, how you age has a lot to do with your attitude and the positive steps you take throughout your life. How you age is more important than what age you are. You need to engage positively with your health and beauty and incorporate time-honored wellness traditions while doing away with fads and unsubstantiated wellness practices.
