I don’t know about you, but I want to age gracefully. By that I mean, in due time and not one moment sooner than is absolutely necessary. When I want anti-aging tips, I look to the experts.
Hailed as a ‘world expert’ in natural medicine by Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Pina LoGiudice is loved by her patients, the public, and medical pundits alike for her blend of compassion, natural beauty, intelligence, and down-to-earth sensibility. Dr. Pina’s holistic wisdom blends practices from naturopaths, scientists, and Chinese medicine and is informed by medical research. (So basically, she’s the expert we want for anti-aging tips!) In her new book, The Little Book of Healthy Beauty, she shares the keys to optimal beauty and health (sleep, food, exercise, relaxation, detoxification), explains how to maximize their benefits, offers advice on natural remedies, and gives expert guidance based on over a decade of research and clinical experience.
Today, she is sharing a few anti-aging tips to will help us look more beautiful each day. And who couldn’t use a little of that?
10 Ways to Keep Your Body Looking Young
Many of my patients ask me how to keep their body young. I tell each patient, there is no one trick, or miracle supplement. Over my years of practice, I have learned the key to youth involves understanding both age-old wisdom and modern research.
You see, what we know is that a strong part of aging is due to your genetic material, called DNA, getting beat up over time. Your genes have little caps, called telomeres, that protect your DNA. These caps are similar to an aglet, which is the tip of a shoelace. When the aglet breaks, the shoe lace frays and gets destroyed. Your DNA will also unravel and break when the telomeres shorten.
Broken DNA is correlated with signs of aging: wrinkles, sagging skin, aches and pains. Also, broken DNA contributes to more cancer, cardiovascular disease and inflammation in the body. In the November 2010 journal of Nature, Harvard researchers showed for the first time that restoring telomeres can help reverse age-related degeneration.
The exciting thing is the common sense wisdom your grandmother knew about health is now being proven by research to halt the aging process and restore telomeres. Here are my 10 favorite steps to keep your body looking young:
Get Your Beauty Sleep.
Inadequate sleep is associated with short telomere length, and early aging. During sleep, your body detoxifies and fixes things, including your skin. People who sleep less look older. I recommend at least 7.5 hours a night to keep your body young.
Exercise Regularly.
Exercise is one of the few things proven to extend life and keep your skin and body young. Exercise sends a signal to all your body cells to stay young. People who exercise regularly have longer telomeres and age slower. Interestingly, heavy exercise will age you quicker and lower life expectancy.
Calm Down.
Body aging accelerates in people with lots of stress. One study found that women with the highest perceived stress had telomeres that looked a decade older! While you can’t always avoid stress, you can lower its effects by meditation, getting acupuncture, enjoying a regular massage, and spending time laughing with friends and loved ones.
Detoxify.
Environmental toxins poison our cell‘s energy packs and contribute to fast aging. Cigarette smoke, pesticides in food, plastics and even the chemicals in cosmetics will all contribute. What to do? Clear your life of the chemicals and plan a regular detox – where you eat plenty of fiber and simple foods, drinking pure water, and gently sweat the toxins out. There’s a full detox plan in my book, The Little Book of Healthy Beauty.
Eat Like a Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean Diet slows telomere shortening according to a Nurses’ Health Study, which looked at the eating patterns of over 121,000 women. This diet lowers inflammation, decreases both cardiovascular risk and cancer too. It’s the style of diet used by people in the world who live the longest and healthiest.
Take the “3 U Need”.
In my clinic, I recommend a multiple vitamin, fish oil and probiotic to almost every patient. A 2009 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study looked at 586 women and found multivitamin supplements help lower oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, to help keep telomeres intact. In 2013, an article in Brain, Behavior and Immunity showed fish oil supplementation lowered oxidative stress and increased telomere length. And probiotics set up a healthy digestive tract, which helps proper nutrient absorption, boosts mood, and lowers inflammation too.
Get Herbal.
Astragalus is an herb that been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years due to its reputation to deter aging. New research shows it’s ability to activate our cell’s anti-aging processes. It can be taken as a tea or pill form.
Take Your Vitamin D.
Studies out of the United Kingdom show how higher levels of the sunshine vita min keep increased telomere length in women to help the body decrease aging processes. Get this tested. If low, take between 2000iu and 5000iu a day.
Say YES to Antioxidants.
Pycnogenol is a bioflavonoid-rich antioxidant from the bark of French maritime pine, and is one of my favorite anti-aging supplements. It will boost hylaluronic acid to keep your skin tighter and wrinkle free.
Be Gentle.
Besides helping my patients, I’m interested in preventing early aging in the next generation. Studies in the journal Pediatrics show that kids who get yelled at, who have poor nutrition, and are exposed to stress have much shorter telomeres as adults, and are more prone to aging fast. We can prevent disease and aging in the next generation by not being negative with our kids, and also on a greater scale by supporting organizations that protect our greatest asset: our children.
There are many natural health controls you have available to powerfully defy aging and look young. You can start doing these anti-aging tips today, and even work to help the next generation to prevent disease and keep youthful too.
Let’s all age as gracefully as possible, shall we?
Dr. Pina LoGiudice has appeared over 20 times on the “Dr. Oz show,” and numerous times on other media such as the Katie Couric Show, and FOX news. She founded and practices at her premier functional and integrative clinic, Inner Source Health in New York. Previous to medical school, she researched the mind-body connection at the National Institutes of Health.
Connect with Dr. Pina @drpinaND, and learn more at www.DrPinaND.com.
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