How Reducing Stress Can Slow Down the Aging Process
We all know that aging can’t be stopped, but can we make the process slower? There are several methods to slowing down the process of aging, and reducing stress is a major one.
Stress is one of the biggest factors in speeding up how quickly we age. It introduces an oxidizing chemical known as cortisol into the blood stream, which can act as a free radical.
But don’t fret, not all cortisol is bad for the body, it is manufactured in the body because it is needed for certain bio-chemical processes. But for an over abundance of stress-induced cortisol, the negative affects can be reduced with some of the following tips.
Reduce stress with exercise!
Stress-reducing exercises include: yoga, breathing exercises and meditation. Yoga is a great way to exercise the body as it’s focused on slow and deliberate movements, building strength, and working with calmness.
There are many different forms of yoga that can be done at home or even just outside on a nice day! Sometimes yoga can be a 5 min stretch session, where you cat and cow, lunge, and stretch your arms over your head simply because it feels good.
Another practice that is observed in yoga is breathing. The act of breathing can actually affect how your heart rate changes, how you perceive your environment, and how you react with your environment as well.
Practicing breath work can help with other ailments, such as nervous shallow breathing, dizziness, and lack of focus. Breathing exercises are good for stress related anxiety attacks, for emotional stress, and for consciousness and mediation work.
Meditation helps calm our minds from all the thoughts rushing through them every day, which decreases levels of cortisol (the hormone released when we feel stressed).
It has been shown that chronic stress can have many negative effects on your body.
One such negative effect is that it can age you much quicker.
Science can back up the fact that stress can accelerate the aging process. When you are under stress that is ongoing, it begins to create a feeling of fight-or-flight within your body
. This, in turn, has a way of releasing stress chemicals into your body that will begin to cause harm.
These chemicals can also cause many biological changes to start the premature aging process.
Ways That Stress Impacts the Aging Process
Premature aging caused by stress happens on a cellular level.
As an example, people who have a lot of work-related stress will begin to get harmful effects on their DNA within the cells. Work stress has been known to shorten the DNA’s telomeres.
When these begin to shorten, a person becomes more at risk for things such as type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Chronic stress has also been found to stress the brain as well. This can lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease and is more prevalent in women over men.
Lastly, stress over long periods of time has been contributed to things like hearing and vision loss and unhealthy lifestyle choices.
Ways to Reduce Your Stress to Slow The Aging Process
There are many ways in which people can slow down the aging process by simple reducing the amount of stress in their lives. The reduction of stress can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Some of the best ways are mentioned below.
Reduce Your Sugar Intake – Most people are aware of the negative impacts that sugar can take on our health.
However, many do not realize that sugar can dramatically age our skin and steal away our youthfulness.
Too much sugar, particularly fructose and glucose, like to dehydrate our skin’s protective proteins.
This process is referred to as advanced glycation.
This process makes your skin lose its elasticity and will look duller.
Drink More Water – One of the easiest and best things you can do for your body to reduce stress and slow down the aging process is to drink enough water.
Chronic dehydration is a very common culprit for premature aging. Water can help to lubricate joints, flush damaging toxins out of the body and restore and hydrate our skin’s elasticity.
It can hydrate on a cellular level to give us a more youthful appearance.
Get Plenty of Rest – Another great way to reduce stress is to get plenty of rest.
When you don’t get enough sleep, fatigue can begin to set in.
When you get less sleep than your body requires, the beginning of an imbalance of hormones starts. This imbalance of hormones can increase a body’s cortisol levels by ten-times.
The result of this increase can lead to imbalanced blood sugar levels and oxidative stress which can cause you to lose your youthful glow.
Sleep is necessary to repair
We all know that stress is bad for our health and well-being, but did you know it could also be slowing down your body’s natural aging process?
Research has found that chronic levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol can lead to a number of symptoms associated with premature aging.
This includes thinning skin tissue, increased wrinkles or age spots on the face, less elasticity in facial features (lips, eyebrows), decreased bone density and low thyroid function.
That may sound like an extreme reaction to something as simple as the pressure at work or family life – but these are some serious consequences!
To avoid them we need to take more time out for ourselves each day and find ways to keep calm when possible and applying the tips above will also help.
