Lifestyle factors like exercise and diet can be as important as genetics when it comes to living long and growing old gracefully. It’s no secret that growing older brings natural change, affecting nearly every part of our body, but giving ourselves a fighting chance at aging well could be as simple as adopting these healthy (and mostly easy) everyday habits. We’ve approached physiotherapists and dietitians to pick their brains about sustainable ways to help us feel younger.
One such way is to eat nutrient-rich, whole foods. Nutrition plays a major role in how our body ages. A holistic, nutrient-rich diet rich in plant-based foods, whole grains, nuts, seafood and healthy fats, even a glass of red wine (in moderation), helps us to age better by warding off heart attacks, strokes, and premature death. An added bonus is that foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, such as walnuts, extra-virgin olive oil, and salmon help our skin manufacture the essential oils it needs to protect itself and can help skin look younger.
In contrast, sugary, carbohydrate-heavy, and unhealthy fatty foods—think, chips, soft drinks, and white bread—can actually speed up the ageing process.
Extra-virgin olive oil is another stellar ingredient to incorporate into our daily life. Packed with antioxidants that help reduce oxidative damage and inflammation caused by free radicals, extra-virgin olive oil may also protect skin elasticity and help to keep skin looking younger.
Stock your pantry with avocados. Why? Because avocados are high in unsaturated fats and fibres that promote skin health. The monounsaturated fats in avocados promote the formation of a healthy skin membrane. At the same time, the high antioxidant levels fight radicals that promote skin damage and ageing, which overall results in younger-looking skin. Let’s not forget about hydration! Regular water intake is essential for maintaining the skin’s balance and tissue function.
A dietician can assess the many factors in a person’s life that impact on their nutritional status and health. Each person has different priorities, motivations and goals when it comes to ageing well. There are also varying levels of income, knowledge, mental health, stress, physical abilities, mobility and cooking facilities that can impact on someone’s nutritional status and health outcomes.
Ensuring that our body’s cells are young and healthy is one of the keys to staying young. Exercise improves the circulation of blood oxygen, and essential nutrients to all of the body’s vital organs, including the skin. Persistent physical activity helps keep our body young on both the inside and out.
Growing old gracefully has a lot more to do with overall health than mere looks. It mainly encompasses the way we feel. An older individual with no health problems has aged well, no matter what he or she looks like. Still, physically healthy people do tend to look younger even in old age.
Whilst some stress is necessary to keep us motivated, excessive stress places strain on our immune system, messes with our hormones, slows our metabolic rate and increases our fat storage. Exercises such as pilates classes and yoga are a way of reducing stress. Pilates exercises are also designed to give us better functional control with all our day-to-day activities and has a whole range of benefits such as improved flexibility, posture, strength and increased energy levels.
Regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to reduce our biological age. It has been shown to improve mood, brain function and the body’s antioxidant defence mechanism. Whilst decreasing pain and reducing depression. It has also been shown to reduce the risks of Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes and dementia. Research indicates that intense interval exercise is more beneficial to the body than long-duration, lower intensity exercise. However, to ensure we can achieve this without hurting ourselves, we must build up slowly.
Like anything, aging can be a positive or negative experience. We don’t have total control over what our experience will be, but we can steer it in a positive direction. A physiotherapist can show you how to incorporate different types of exercise techniques into your daily routine. This includes proper posture and lifting strategies that will reduce the occurrence of injury and help prevent your exercise routine from becoming interrupted.
Listen to Atticusphysio Wendy Doan’s, podcast on Injury Prevention.
Exercise really can help us stay young both physically and mentally. But if we want to make it work, eating nutrient-rich, whole foods and drinking plenty of water is essential. Watch what you put into your body. And lastly, enjoy some exercise.
