Patriot Health Digest
When it comes to daily actions that lead to worse aging, drinking lots of alcohol and smoking are well-known offenders at this point — you do not need to be told they are bad for your health and aging. But did you know there are some other factors that could be causing you to age prematurely?
You will be shocked at how numerous seemingly innocent things could be causing great damage to your DNA and harming your otherwise healthy routine.
1 — Stress
Stress is the top enemy to your telomeres, those important small caps at the end of every strand of DNA responsible for guarding our chromosomes. While telomeres naturally shrink as we get older, that disintegration is increased by chronic stress. So yes — while being stressed could be aging you, it does not have to be a given.
“One of my best recommendations for helping stress is a technique that combines acupressure and psychology. This technique is called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or ‘Tapping’ that is proven to lower your cortisol by as much as 43%, much more than traditional therapy or resting,” says Melanie Keller ND.
2 — Bad Diets
Exercise and meditation are also very effective methods for handling stress.
If it is true you are what you eat, then eating a diet which is comprised of industrial trans fats, sugar and processed junk is a road for some fast aging.
“Processed sugar, carbs and alcohol are known to make inflammation worse,” says Keller.
3 — Sleep And Mood
Consistent sleep deprivation is another factor that leads to harmful inflammation and premature aging. Not only does this bad sleep negatively harm your skin, making you seem older than you really are, it’s one of the worst things for faster aging — especially where the human brain is concerned.
“Brain aging is affected by the interplay of our sleep changes in your brain’s garbage cleaning process,” Keller says. “Insufficient sleep means an increase in your brain’s garbage pile and might explain an underlying mechanism behind unhealthy brain aging.”
The CDC recommends people get between 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
