Forever Young - How To Reverse Aging Process Naturally

Ever wondered why some people at their 40’s still look like 20 and vice versa?

It's not a coincidence.

Age is not just chronological - it’s biological. And unlike chronological age - you can affect your biological age up to large extent with your lifestyle choices.

Of course there are things in life we can’t control such as accidents, but the daily choices we make have a huge impact on our biological age. And I’m not talking about medical treatments and anti-aging cosmetics. The most effective natural remedies that can stop aging and make you look and feel younger are almost all free.

In this post I'll explain how to slow down and even reverse aging process naturally.

What causes aging

There is nothing wrong with wrinkles and grey hair. That’s gonna happen to all of us eventually.

But aging can bring us a set of other issues such as chronic pain, cognitive decline and illnesses that most people aren’t too exited to welcome in their lives.

To understand how to slow down and reverse aging, we need to first understand how aging actually happens. Here’s a break-down of the different factors that cause aging:

So in order to slow down and reverse aging, we need to improve our lifestyle in all of these levels. But before we jump into these age reversing habits, let’s first talk about cellular aging and telomeres a bit more .

What are telomeres and why are they important?

Telomeres are a sequence of DNA that forms a protective cap at the ends of your chromosomes. This cap keeps the chromosome from falling apart each time it’s replicated.

Without telomeres, your chromosomes get damaged, resulting in poorly constructed cells, disease, and a weaker body.

Telomeres shorten naturally as we get older but new studies show that it's possible to stop the shortening and lengthen your telomeres with certain lifestyle choices. This means we have more control in our aging process than previously thought!

How to reverse aging process naturally

First, let’s look into the destructive habits that cause premature ageing and telomere shortening. By knowing what to avoid, we can take the first step towards slowing down aging process naturally.

Most of these are pretty straight-forward. Research has shown that obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, dehydration, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, chronic stress contribute towards shorter telomeres and premature aging.

Luckily, just by reversing many of these habits we can have the opposite effect.

Ancient medicine systems like Ayurveda has known for thousands of years that healthy diet, yoga, pranayama and meditation are key to longevity. Western science is only now starting to catch up and here are some of the new findings.

Healthy Diet

Nutrients are literally the building blocks for your cells. So it only makes sense that healthy diet has a huge impact in your telomere length and cellular aging. According to research, telomere length is positively associated with the consumption of healthy unprocessed foods such as legumes, nuts, seaweed, fruits, and high intake of dietary fiber and anti-oxidants whereas shortened telomeres were associated with with consumption of alcohol, sugar, red meat, processed meat and high intake of saturated fats.

Oxidative stress (free radicals) has a great impact on telomere shortening. Therefore antioxidants are especially effective when protecting your telomeres.

Maintaining a healthy weight is also important when slowing down aging. A study shows that obesity is linked to premature aging and telomere loss with obese people was calculated to be equivalent of a staggering 8.8 years of life!

Some studies also suggest that smaller calorie intake can have a telomere lengthening effect as well and therefore calorie restriction and fasting may also play a role preventing premature aging.

So with nutritious diet and healthy weight you're already one step closer to the fountain of youth. Here's a list of some of the most powerful anti-aging foods:

Pranayama, Asana and Meditation

A recent study showed that asana (physical yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises) increase the oxygen flow to the cells and meditation reduces the stress levels by modulating the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. This means that practice of asana, pranayama, and meditation have a positive effect on our telomeres and therefore can prevent premature aging.

Although yoga is not the only type of exercise that can be credited for its anti-aging benefits. Research has shown that physical exercise in general can reduce oxidative stress and help preserve DNA.

Several studies have been done with meditation alone that show a how telomerase activity with those who meditate is significantly higher than those who don't.

Meditation indeed may be the easiest and most effective way to reverse your aging. In fact, a study showed that if you had a matching chronological and biological age on your 30th birthday and you started meditating daily, by the time you were 35 you had the skin elasticity and the sexual responsiveness and the auditory threshold and the vision and the memory of a 23 year old version of yourself.

In other words, your biological age was 7 years younger than you were when you started meditating. That's quite impressive!

Anti-aging skincare

When it comes to natural anti-ageing skincare, the key is to use gentle products and keep the skin mosturized especially after washing it. Exposure to sunlight is vital for our health but it's important not to let the skin burn or tan too much.

Some of the best home remedies for anti ageing skincare are those that come straight from the nature.

Proper sleep and relaxation

According to studies, poor sleep and stress increase the rate of telomere shortening.

Therefore it's vital to optimize your sleep and properly relax. For example, meditation, massage, yoga nidra and restorative yoga are excellent ways to activate our body's natural relaxation response and let our bodies to recover and restore.

Protecting your health and preventing premature aging just by relaxing?

Sounds a lot better way to stay youthful than going through expensive medical treatments in my opinion.

Loving relationships and sex

It's already been proven that close relationships are important for our health. Mortality rates are higher among those with unsupportive and hostile relationships in comparison to those with loving relationships.

But that's not it!

According to another study, specifically sexual intimacy between couples was reported to be an important factor associated with telomere length.

So by having both, a loving partner and an active sexlife therefore may be preventing premature aging. Talk about a win-win situation?

Wrapping up

There's nothing wrong with looking older - it's inevitable for all of us at some point and I think it's a beautiful step moving towards more mature stage in our lives.

But I think maintaining our energy high and preventing diseases as long as we can is often worth a few lifestyle changes. And if as a result the wrinkles also come few years later, I'm not going to complain :)

Getting old and sick might seem to be far away right now but the better care you take of yourself today, the more healthy years you'll add in your life.