Anti-Aging: 10 Tips to Lose 10 Years

Who doesn't want to be ten years younger? Well, maybe a teenager doesn't. But once you are beyond your twenties, more and more of one's resources start being directed at recapturing youth or at least maintaining what we've got.

Since research has shown that somewhere around 70 percent of the factors influencing life expectancy are due to lifestyle choices (and some good luck) we see that the speed by which we age is very much in our control.

With this in mind, Comtemporary Retirement's latest post caught my eye. It links to this post with the following tips for taking 10 years off of your age. (Note: I replaced one of the tips with one of our own. The article recommended periodically skipping a meal as a weight reduction strategy, which unfortunately just doesn't work, so we replaced that tip with "quit smoking", the #1 thing one can do to fight aging.)

Tip #1: Stop Smoking

"...this is probably the most important thing we can do to stay healthy and live longer," says Walter Willett, MD, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Enough said, from lung cancer to smelling clothes to bad teeth, there are so many reasons not to smoke that if you smoke then make today your last day.

Tip #2: Stay at the Weight You Were at 18

Since there are so many resources dedicated to weight management we won't go into them here but suffice to say that short-cuts don't work and regimens should be phased in with the expectation that they are going to last a lifetime.

As for the weight, since there is such a wide variety of body types, this article recommends using your last year of high school weight as the target.

Tip #3: Get a Pet

Why?

Owning a pet reduces the number of visits to the doctor, prolongs survival after a heart attack, and wards off depression, says James Serpell, Ph.D., director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania.

The article notes that you need to pick your pet wisely. Don't expect stress reduction from Rover chewing up everything that is dear to you.

Tip #4: Get help for what hurts

Studies suggest that continuous pain may dampen the immune system -- and evidence is clear that it can cause deep depression and push levels of the noxious stress hormone cortisol higher.

As a corollary to this, why try to minimize aging if living is uncomfortable? Even if you don't have the continuous pain that the article is referring to, a good rule to live by is to not try and live with "bum knees" or "bad shoulders." Things that hurt or are prone to injury should be fixed and the earlier the better.

Tip #5: Take a hike

With age, blood vessel walls tend to stiffen up like old tires -- the main reason two-thirds of people older than age 60 have high blood pressure. Exercise keeps vessels pliable. Mild exercise also reduces the risk of diabetes, certain cancers, depression, aging of the skin, maybe even dementia. That excites exercise researcher Steven N. Blair, past president of the nonprofit Cooper Institute in Dallas.

How much? Try 30 minutes a day, 5x a week. Walk to lunch (15 min each way) or create a daily walk to Starbucks (just avoid the ridiculously high calorie drinks). Whatever it is, develop a regimen that gets built into your schedule.

Tip #6: Fight Fair

Nasty arguments between couples increase the risk of clogged arteries. In a recent University of Utah study, women's hearts suffered when they made or heard hostile comments; men's hearts reacted badly to domineering, controlling words.

This tip can also be summarized as to minimize stress. Nasty arguments are far more stressful than a simple disagreement. If you can't agree on something, then agree to disagree and move on.

Tip #7: Plant a Garden

Huh?

In one study, blood pressure jumped in workers given a stressful task -- but rose only a quarter as much if there were plants in the room. And patients who had a view of trees as they recovered from surgery left the hospital almost a day sooner than those with a view of a brick wall.

Well, this tip might be a little bit of a stretch for some people (like us), but believe that it is related to the point about about reducing stress. Get out of your home, office or cubicle and take in a pastoral setting. And putting a picture of a forest on your computer monitor won't have the same effect.

Tip #8: Life Weights

Everyone knows cardio exercise is key to slowing the advance of time. More surprising: Strength-training is crucial, too. That's because after their mid-40s, people lose 1/4 pound of muscle mass a year, gaining fat in its place. But, says Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, "For a couple of decades, you don't have to lose any muscle, if you do the appropriate exercises."

Let us state it this way. If you are over 40, you should belong to a gym. Period.

Tip #9: Do a good deed

[A] study, at the University of Michigan, looked at 423 elderly married couples; after 5 years, the pairs who were more altruistic were only half as likely to have died.

Tip #10: Take Supplements

What supplements you take and how many is a very individualized decision that should be done after consultation with your doctor or better yet a nutritionist. But don't put it off for too long. Rare is the person who eats well enough that they are getting all of the minerals and vitamins they need. Also, do not fall into the trap that by eating a multivitamin you are freed up of eating balanced meals. They are called "supplements" or a reason.