Want to Look Younger? Here Are the Single Best Anti-Aging Tips for Each Body Part
Key takeaways:
No one can prevent aging, but some people’s bodies age faster or slower than others.
Certain healthy habits can slow down the aging process throughout the body. And this can affect how quickly you show signs of aging, from your memory to your skin.
Many of these lifestyle changes can have an anti-aging effect on your health and help reverse the damage in the body that adds up with age.
Table of contents
Do you ever wonder how some people manage to stay so young and healthy, even in their later years? Some people seem to look even more youthful as they age. This anti-aging look goes beyond just luck or good genes.
Many things play into how you show the signs of aging — and how long you live. Daily habits are a key part of what keeps people looking and feeling younger. So we’ll take you through the single best thing you can do for each major organ to reduce the effects of aging.
Brain: Get more sleep
A lack of sleep is one of the leading causes of premature aging. And sleep is particularly important for brain health.
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The brain relies on sleep to clear out toxic waste products that build up during the day. This is probably part of the reason that poor sleep has also been linked to neurological diseases like dementia.
In addition to living longer, getting good sleep is also linked to having more healthy, disease-free years in older age. But what is “good sleep”? Researchers found that life expectancy is higher in people who sleep 7 to 8 hours a night — without the help of sleep medications.
But as many people know, healthy sleep patterns don’t always come easily. Here are some helpful habits to build a healthy sleep routine:
Go to bed at the same time every night. And plan this time so you can sleep 7 to 9 hours each night.
Limit screen time within 2 hours of bed time, including phones, computers, and TVs. This interferes with your body’s natural production of melatonin, which promotes sleep.
Avoid caffeine in the afternoon or evening. Even if you don’t feel it, your body takes 6 hours or more to metabolize coffee.
Avoid alcohol near bedtime. It might make you feel drowsy, but it interrupts natural sleep patterns and reduces deep sleep.
Create a cool, dark, and quiet sleep environment. This may mean using a sleep mask, blackout curtains, earplugs, or a sound machine.
Create a bedtime ritual — like a deep-breathing or meditation exercise. This exercise will relax you, and the habit will start to work as a signal to your brain that it’s time for sleep.
Heart: Eat whole foods
A healthy diet is especially important to slow the effects of aging on the heart. But with so many options, it’s hard to know which heart-healthy diet is best.
Science is yet to prove that a specific diet is “anti-aging.” But the parts of the world that follow a Mediterranean diet are shown to live longer. The Mediterranean diet can also prevent heart disease as you age, and it’s linked to better overall health.
Even though the name “Mediterranean diet” may seem limited to certain foods or cultural preferences, it is more about eating whole, minimally processed foods. You can tailor the foundation of this diet to meet your own lifestyle and preferences. It is a diet that focuses on:
Vegetables
Fruits
Nuts
Legumes
Whole grains
Olive oil, or other healthy oils
Lean animal protein, including chicken and fish
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Lungs: Avoid cigarette smoke
Smoking is the number one cause of premature lung aging. If you smoke, the best thing you can do for your lungs — and every other organ in your body — is to quit. Beyond lung disease, smoking even 1 cigarette per day increases the risk of death due to any cause.
And even if you don’t smoke, it’s important to know that secondhand smoke causes the same negative effects as direct smoking. So to keep your lungs healthy, it’s best to avoid both direct and indirect smoke exposure.
Smoking can cause several diseases that make you age faster and shorten lifespan, including cancer and COPD. But when people quit smoking, research shows they can reverse lung damage and improve lung function. So it’s never too late to quit.
Gut: Increase fiber intake
Your gut plays a big role in how youthful you feel. This is in part due to the brain-gut connection.
For the best intestine and colon health, a diet rich in natural fiber is key. Healthy fiber intake has been associated with multiple health benefits, including lower risk of death from any cause. Additional benefits of fiber intake include:
Lower risk of colon cancer
Improved balance of healthy gut bacteria
Decreased risk for obesity and related diseases like diabetes
Fortunately, many of the whole, minimally processed foods that are best for your heart are also naturally high in fiber. And new research suggests that having the right balance of gut bacteria is important for maintaining healthy brain function with aging.
Liver: Cut back on alcohol
Avoiding or limiting alcohol intake is the single best habit to keep your liver from slowing down as you age. One of the liver’s main jobs is to get rid of toxins in the blood. This includes alcohol. This is also why, over time, alcohol can be especially damaging to the liver.
Ongoing alcohol use can lead to liver failure (cirrhosis), and it increases your risk for liver and other types of cancer. Heavy alcohol use is also strongly linked to the development of dementia.
And even if you already have some degree of liver damage — or signs of cirrhosis — research suggests that stopping alcohol can reverse this.
You may have heard that some alcohol may have some health benefits. But today, most experts agree that the risks of alcohol are higher than any potential health benefits.
Kidneys: Stay hydrated
Kidneys also play an important role in getting rid of toxins in the body to keep you feeling young. And the best way to keep them healthy is easy: Drink enough water.
Water helps the kidneys make enough urine so they can get rid of waste products in the blood. Water also helps the kidneys process medications and reduces the risk for kidney stones.
People who drink more water have a lower risk for developing chronic kidney disease in later life. Beyond the kidneys, water intake helps the look of your skin and promotes healthy metabolism.
Muscles and joints: Move your body
Most people know that exercise has many benefits for keeping you feeling younger, both physically and mentally. Research shows that when people exercise more, they add years to their lifespan. Exercise also:
Reduces pain
Improves mobility as you age
Reduces the risk for falling, which helps you stay independent as you age
Exercise has even been shown to slow down some diseases that get worse as people age — like Parkinson’s disease.
Experts recommend that adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. But this doesn’t need to be a bunch of strenuous workouts. More gentle movements, like walking and swimming, are great for joint health.
Skin: Daily sunscreen
When it comes to anti-aging, most people think of their skin. That’s because the skin can show or hide the signs of aging more than any other organ.
Sun damage is the biggest factor associated with early (premature) aging of the skin. Signs of early aging of the skin include fine lines, sagging of the skin, and discoloration.
Regular use of sunscreen can make a big difference. It prevents sun damage and reduces the risk for skin cancer.
Some skin products can reduce the external signs of skin aging, including fine lines and uneven skin tone. Good ingredients to look for to support healthy, young looking skin include retinol and vitamin C serum.
The bottom line
We all grow one day older — together — every day. And while no one can stop or slow down the clock, you do have some control in how your body ages. Making the right choices today can also lower your risk for chronic disease in the future, adding years to life. And for people living with chronic disease, these habits can help to stabilize or even improve these conditions.
Combined together, following the advice for each organ makes a recipe for healthy living. Perhaps as important for long living, these habits can improve how we feel so that we can live each day to the fullest.
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