By Julie E 
Photo Cedit (Greety Images)
Maintaining your physical and emotional health can lead to a happier, healthier you if you wish to go back in time. “Diet, exercise, and sleep are all very beneficial and can help to slow ageing at a cellular level,” says Thomas Yates, a professor who focuses on how lifestyle affects aging processes.
You may have a 12% higher chance of dying sooner if you sleep for less than six hours each night than if you sleep for six to eight. Less than seven hours of sleep throws off hormones linked to hunger, which leads to weight gain and other issues.
What does aging mean?
The majority of us consider aging to be the process of growing older. What does that actually mean, though? The accumulation of physical changes over time is known as aging. These alterations may be mental, emotional, or physical. They can occur rapidly or gradually, and they can be either positive or negative.
Everyone experiences the natural process of aging. Nonetheless, there are steps you can take to maintain your youthful appearance, stay energized, and slow down the aging process. Eat well, stay hydrated, exercise, and get lots of restful sleep. By doing these activities, you may keep your body robust and healthy and steer clear of many age-related issues.
Everyone wants to age young and well, but what is the scientific consensus? How can we maintain the health of our bodies and minds? Many of the steps to keeping youthful are doable; in fact, moderate exercise is frequently preferable than very intense exercise, which can be detrimental to the heart at extremely high volumes.
Reduce your calorie intake by up to 25%.
A third of the 220 participants in the study reduced their caloric intake by 25% during a two-year period, while the remaining participants made no dietary modifications. The people who lowered calories seemed to age up to 3% more slowly, which could reduce their chance of dying young.
Run five days a week.
As long as you do it consistently, aerobic exercise has been shown in numerous studies to offer strong longevity advantages. According to research, exerting additional effort can delay the aging process of cells within the body by up to nine years. Cell aging is caused by the shortening of our telomeres, which are the protein “bumpers” that shield DNA from harm as we age. This process is exacerbated by bad eating, drinking, and inactivity.
Walking quickly can erase fifteen years.
You could live longer if you walk briskly for roughly 100 steps per minute (2.7 p.m.). Fast daily walkers may be up to 15 years younger biologically than dawdlers, according to research. In particular, longer telomeres are the result of a lifetime of vigorous walking. Your chromosomal ends have these protective “caps.” Telomeres are essential for maintaining the stability of DNA, even though they do not carry genetic information. In order to determine a person’s biological age, scientists measure these end caps. In terms of biological age, which can differ from chronological age (your birthday), the longer a person is, the younger they are.
Frequent walking improves mood, lowers anxiety and sadness, and helps counteract weariness and, to some extent, pain symptoms. Some of the advantages are more long-term and can prevent typical age-related diseases including obesity, high cholesterol, vascular stiffness, joint pain, inflammation, and mental stress, while others are more immediate (lowered blood sugar, for example). That should be more than enough reason to start marking “take a walk” on your to-do list right away.
Drink 1.5–2 liters of liquids each day.
Maintaining adequate hydration will help delay biological aging. Aim for 1.5–2L of fluid per day, or six glasses of water (more if you exercise vigorously). Your fluid consumption includes tea, coffee, and foods like fruit, vegetables, and soups that are high in fluid content.
Start riding a bike.
Pedalling is another way to prevent premature aging and is easier on the joints than running. The thymus, which produces the immunological T cells that fight infection, often starts to shrivel around the age of 20, though this is less noticeable in lifelong athletes. The bikers’ thymuses were producing as many T cells as a young person’s, according to a study conducted by Professor Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Ageing in Birmingham. It’s never too late to begin exercising, even cycling. Even though it is preferable to be active throughout one’s life, sedentary people who start exercising more in their middle or later years nevertheless gain greatly in terms of longevity and avoiding the negative consequences of aging.
Sleep for seven hours every night.
From middle age onward, a consistent 7 hours of sleep every night is necessary to prevent many of the negative consequences of aging, such as cognitive loss. It has been demonstrated that sleep disruption raises inflammation, making people more vulnerable to age-related illnesses. The accumulation of the protein amyloid, which results in “tangles” in the brain characteristic of some forms of dementia, is linked to the disturbance of slow-wave, deep sleep. In order to avoid premature aging, sleep is crucial. In older adults, a single night of sleep deprivation triggers key biochemical pathways that support biological aging.
Yoga keeps us young By lowering the negative effects of stress at the cellular level, yoga can postpone physical aging while also making us feel younger by increasing flexibility and suppleness. Key indicators of cellular aging were slowed down by 12 weeks of yoga practice that included postures, breathing exercises, and some meditation for 90 minutes five days a week, according to research. Positive alterations in biomarkers that show oxidative stress and DNA damage, which can age cells, were revealed by the study.
Reduce your intake of processed foods.
Eating mass-produced ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which are usually loaded with chemicals, sugars, and dyes, won’t prevent aging and could even hasten the onset of old age. Researchers from the University of Navarra in Spain discovered a direct connection between telomere shortening, UPF use, and faster cell aging. Eating as much food as possible in its original state is always preferable. The secret to proper aging is to stay away from things you wouldn’t find in your kitchen cupboard.