Aging happens to us all, but you can choose (to some degree) how you age. Genetics will play a role, of course, in your health and wellness, but when it comes to your lifestyle, a lot of your choices will mean the difference between feeling great and feeling fatigued — or looking refreshed and looking tired.
Since you can’t control everything, it’s a comfort to focus on those things within your control. According to one social media post, there are nine daily habits that are “secretly” aging you faster and “shortening your lifespan.” Putting your efforts toward these habits and changing them can help you look and feel your absolute best.
1. Skipping Sleep
When you skip sleep, your immune system becomes weaker, you suffer from more inflammation, and this can "accelerate aging." It’s best to aim to get between seven and nine hours of quality sleep.
2. Sedentary Lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is one in which you move around very little and spend a lot of time sitting. This slows circulation, reduces mitochondrial function, and weakens muscles.
3. Too Much Sugar and Processed Foods
Excess sugar in your diet leads to glycation, which damages collagen and increases the rate in which your skin ages and can develop wrinkles.
4. High Stress
Chronic stress and negative thinking isn’t just good for your headspace — it’s terrible for your body, as well. When you’re stressed, your body released the cortisol hormone that breaks down collagen and accelerates cellular aging.
5. Dehydration
When you don’t drink enough water, your skin gets dry and can look more wrinkly. Your joints can also stiffen and a lack of hydration can slow detoxification.
6. Environmental Pollutants
Toxin exposure from pollution and processed foods, and products laden with chemicals increases oxidative stress in the body. It’s important to try and limit these factors from our lives as much as possible.
7. Alcohol
Excess alcohol consumption and too much caffeine cause dehydration (and this turns up on your skin), and can put stress on your liver and disrupt sleep. Limiting the amount that you drink can make every one of your other habits (like sleep, stress, and dehydration) easier to stick to.
8. Lack of Social Connection
Make that phone call or plan that coffee date: social connection is important for your help. Not engaging with others leads to isolation and loneliness and that can lead to inflammation in the body and have an impact on your overall health.
9. Neglecting Cellular Health
Pay attention to your diet and the supplements you take. Neglecting your cellular health leads to mitochondrial dysfunction, poor detoxification, and nutrient deficiencies. And these can all accelerate aging.
