Five lifestyle factors that may speed up aging and actionable steps to enhance your health and well-being.

Growing old is part of human life and of course there are factors that are brought by this natural process but there are also factors that can cause this process to be fast forwarded. Knowledge of the determinants of biological aging is useful to enable people to enhance their quality of healthy life expectancy.

Five Lifestyle Factors of Aging

Five surprising factors that may be secretly aging you faster and offer actionable steps to mitigate their effects are:

1. Social Isolation
A major problem in the social welfare of senior citizens is loneliness; as a study revealed that approximately 23 percent of people who are 65 years old and above have had loneliness at some time in their lives. Scientific studies also revealed that decreased social contacts bring about various diseases such as dementia, heart diseases, stroke and depression (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Effects of social isolation on quality of life in elderly adults

Go to source

).

Having friends, family, partners and colleagues, or any social contacts with, is very important in everyone’s lives. Volunteering for clubs, or even attending community classes create associations and improve the worthwhile cause feeling. New and durable interpersonal relationships across the human life span, and particularly in later life, are an effective means of enhancing longevity.

2. Failure to Wear Shades- Why It is Important to Protect Our eyes

Accompanying proper use of sun lotion is equally important, which is wearing sunglasses. People fail to prevent eye exposure to the damaging ultraviolet rays and the skin around the eyes lose elasticity through constant exposure to the sun (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Skin Aging: The Role of DNA Damage and Oxidative Stress in Epidermal Stem Cell Damage Mediated Skin Aging

Go to source).

Buy good quality sunglasses that have UV protection. It also shields your eyes and minimizes squinting that contributes to formulation of lines of wrinkles. Thus, the daily use of sunglasses can turn into a perfect powerful strategy in the fight against early aging.

3. Sedentary Lifestyle

Lack of physical activity during mostly sitting in front of the television is a factor that props up the risk of unhealthy aging. Lack of physical activity is also associated with weight gain, high blood pressure, heart disease and loss of muscle tissue (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
The Importance of Physical Activity Exercise among Older People

Go to source).

Advertisement

Stay active – this means moving more than you have been in your everyday life. Take up light or moderate forms of exercise that you find satisfying and that include walking, dancing, or taking the tai chi. Resistance training is also good in preserving muscles and helping in skin renewal. Ideally, they want to progress from week to week so that they can raise the intensity of the exercise or the number of repetitions that is done.

4. Chronic Stress

Chronic stress is found to be attributed to intensity and inflammation of cells and adverse health impact on DNA including telomeres which are major for cellular aging. These impacts are worsened by factors; caregiver roles, economic strain, and discrimination (4^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Stress Biology and Aging Mechanisms: Toward Understanding the Deep Connection Between Adaptation to Stress and Longevity

Go to source).

Advertisement

It can be difficult sometimes to wholly eradicate chronic stressors, but applying stress reducing measures can be of help. Adults should get at least seven hours of sleep in a day, practice meditation or mindfulness, avoid or reduce use of alcohol, and exercise often. In addition, work-stress risks may be eased if a person attained a network of people he or she can talk to about the problem.

5. Sugar and Ultra-processed Food (Influence of diet on Aging)

The daily consumption of items containing added sugars and ultra-processed was associated with aging at the biological level. Some of these food choices are bad for the brain and the heart, thus they shorten the health span (5^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Associations of healthy eating patterns with biological aging: national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES) 1999-2018

Go to source).

Keep to a healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grain, and lean meat. Reducing the consumption of louis and ultra-processed foods is recommended for promoting a healthy lifestyle in later years. But though nutrition is at the heart of most interventions, practical, meaningful changes are often needed across the whole spectrum of lifestyle and domains, and sustainable change over longer time periods is necessary.

Although it may be impossible to slow down the process of aging, awareness of factors, which contribute to premature aging, may help people choose healthier lifestyles. This way, social networks, sunscreen, regular physical activity, and a healthy diet may help one to turn the clock backwards a bit and make the golden years as comfortable as possible. If you have not been taking care of your body in the past then as you said it’s never too late to make improvements no matter how big or small the change will make a huge difference in the long run.

References:

1. Effects of social isolation on quality of life in elderly adults – (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9632793/)
2. Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Skin Aging: The Role of DNA Damage and Oxidative Stress in Epidermal Stem Cell Damage Mediated Skin Aging – (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4842382/)
3. The Importance of Physical Activity Exercise among Older People – (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6304477/)
4. Stress Biology and Aging Mechanisms: Toward Understanding the Deep Connection Between Adaptation to Stress and Longevity – (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4022128/)
5. Associations of healthy eating patterns with biological aging: national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES) 1999-2018 – (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39342289/)

Source-Medindia