The best plan for anti-aging health includes regular exercise, a healthy diet, and making good lifestyle choices. Positive behaviors include quitting smoking and limiting alcohol consumption. Together, these factors promote a healthy body and decrease the risk of multiple conditions associated with aging. Good skin care helps maintain a youthful outward appearance.
Exercise has a positive impact on the entire body, as well as the mind, making it an important part of anti-aging health. It strengthens the heart, bones, and muscles, all of which can weaken with age. It improves cholesterol and reduces inflammation, two factors that are associated with the aging process. Exercise also reduces stress, which can cause temporary or lasting effects similar to aging. These and other benefits of exercise can be gained just by walking a half an hour every day.
Following the right diet is also important for anti-aging health. Dietary choices can help reduce high blood pressure and weight gain and protect the arteries that supply the heart with blood. Diets linked to longer and better quality lives, like the Mediterranean diet, are high in fruits and vegetables, legumes, and seafood. These foods are high in nutrients and low in saturated fats and total calories. Processed meats, fried foods, and refined grains contribute to diseases associated with aging.
One of the best things for anti-aging health is quitting smoking. Smoking damages the heart and lungs and increases the likelihood of a number of cancers, especially lung cancer. It also damages the skin by reducing elasticity and causing wrinkles. Moderate alcohol consumption, no more than one or two drinks a day, lowers blood pressure and improves cholesterol levels. Drinking more than this ages the cardiovascular system and increases cancer risk.
Protecting the skin is an important factor in anti-aging health, especially in a person's outward appearance. Exposure to sunlight and the radiation in tanning beds ages skin, causing wrinkles and making it less soft. This radiation can also cause spots and skin cancer. Daily sunscreen use, covering exposed skin when possible, and avoiding tanning beds will help keep skin looking young. Exfoliating daily and using a moisturizer with sunscreen is probably the best way to prevent wrinkles and skin aging.
Omega-3 fatty acids help keep the heart and arteries younger. They're already present in a diet that includes a few weekly servings of cold-water fish, but can also be taken in supplement form. A multivitamin-mineral supplement should help prevent any vitamin deficiencies. There is much more evidence that eating whole foods is a better anti-aging strategy than taking other isolated supplements.
