Elevate your health ,fitness and beauty
10 Tips For Healthy And Beautiful Aging
Aging is a natural biological process which we cannot stop but we can slow it. We all want to stay healthy and independent. Taking care of your physical, mental, and cognitive health is important for healthy aging. Even making small changes in your daily life can help you live longer.
The World Health Organization defines healthy aging as “the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age."
Healthy aging is not just about living longer, it’s about living healthily, happily and beautifully for longer. Everyone should follow the following steps for aging better and these steps can be implemented at any age.
1. Stay Active: Daily exercise helps you to stay strong and healthy. This will lower your risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer. Staying active can boost your self-esteem, improve your sleep, and give you more energy. Regular exercise can include walking, swimming, gardening, stretching, and strength training, such as using light weights or resistance bands. Strength training promotes bone health and prevent loss of bone density, and as a result it will help your balance and stamina, reduce risk of falls, and improve brain health.
It is recommended that older adults should do 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week, as well as strengthening exercises twice a week.
2. Eat a Well-Balanced Diet: As you age, having a well balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables is crucial for good health, energy, and preventing illness. Nutrition and medical experts says the best diets includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, low fat dairy, meals low in red meat, and food prepared with less sugar and salt. (learn more Dash and Mediterranean diet)
3. Get Regular Checkups and Screenings: Seeing a doctor regularly can help the doctor find problems early or even before they start. Regular checkups usually include blood tests that cover risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, including cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Ask your doctor how often you should go in for checkups and screening tests as you age. Cancer screenings are used to find cancer in people who have no symptoms. Screenings gives you the best chance of finding these illnesses as early as possible – before it has spread.
4. Look After Your Teeth, Eyes and Ears: It’s important to see a dentist regularly. Brush your teeth twice a day and floss daily to prevent gum disease, which has been linked to heart disease, stroke, and bacterial pneumonia. According to the American Dental Association, a dentist can spot signs of nutritional deficiencies, infections, cancer, and other illnesses, such as diabetes.
Additionally, as we age our hearing and eyesight can be affected, so it’s important to get them checked regularly.
5. Take Care Of Your skin: As you age, your skin can easily get very dry and possibly lead to wrinkles, so you should take very good care of your skin. For your skin health you should:
- Wear sunscreen when you are outside.
- Use gentle anti aging skin products.
- Stay well hydrated.
- Get skin cancer screenings, if your doctor recommends it.
6. Get Enough Sleep: Sleep is important for your physical and mental health. As we age, a lot of us have problems falling asleep or staying asleep. This can leave you feeling tired and grumpy.
Studies have shown that poor sleep is linked to a higher risk of diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, obesity, cancer, and early death.Avoid insomnia by cutting down on daytime naps, establishing a bedtime routine and going to bed at the same time each night.
7. Take Care Of Your Mental Health: Mental health matters even more as you age. Being happy and keeping your stress down goes a long way in helping you live and age well.
For your mental health you should:
- Spend time with friends and loved ones, as they can prevent you from feeling lonely or anxious.
- Engage in activities you enjoy, it will fuel your happiness. Spend time in nature, pursue a new hobby, volunteer — whatever brings you joy.
- Lower your stress. Stress has a wide range of negative impacts on the body, from early aging and wrinkles to an increased chance of heart disease. There are several effective methods for reducing stress, including yoga, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques like meditation.
8. Give Up Smoking and Limit Alcohol Consumption: Both smoking and drinking have been responsible to speed up the aging process and raise the risk of illness. Smoking is also a major risk factor for heart disease, heart attacks and stroke. If you smoke, quit immediately. Quitting smoking is not easy, but it is very rewarding, and there are resources available to help you quit. Speak to a doctor about how to quit.
Drinking large amounts of alcohol can also significantly increase your risk of having a stroke.
Ask your doctor about safe limit of alcohol consumption.
9. Challenge Your Brain: According to the Alzheimer Association, mental stimulation is important for brain health. Brain health has been related to mentally challenging activities, and studies have shown that brain-training exercises can help older persons improve some cognitive skills. Continue to learn new skills, doing crossword puzzles, or math games. Stay curious and involved in lifelong learning.
10. Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness keep our brains sharp. According to research, meditation and mindfulness activates the part our brains associated with short- and long-term memory recall. Research confirms practicing mindfulness can also slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease or other types of memory loss.
According to research done by American Psychological Association, mindfulness can:
- Reduce stress
- Increase focus
- Decrease sense of being controlled by emotions
- Reduce dwelling over unhappy thoughts
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