Can lifestyle choices affect the way I age?
Lifestyle choices can have a big impact on the way you age - diet, exercise, sleep and stress management are all important factors. Weight management specialist Caroline Apovian, MD, shares some tips for optimal, healthy aging.
Transcript
Lifestyle choices affect the way you age.
So there are several items that we can talk about. Your diet-- you need to have lean protein,
plenty of fruits and vegetables for vitamins and minerals, unsaturated fatty acids that keep your cells moving well.
So you need to eat right. You also need to move your muscles. Your muscles-- if you don't use them, you will lose them.
And then you'll develop what we know as the shrinking muscle syndrome. So we talked about diet, exercise.
There's two more, sleep and stress. Sleep is very important for rejuvenation. If you don't sleep enough, you will age very quickly.
And studies in animals show that if animals don't sleep, they die very quickly. So do humans, by the way.
So how much do you need? You need seven to eight hours of sleep a night-- dedicated sleep time, getting your REM sleep.
And you need to practice good sleep hygiene-- so not eating foods that are very heavy at night,
limiting caffeine intake at night, making sure your bed is only for sleeping purposes,
and having natural light. These can help you get to sleep. And the last item that we talk about is stress.
Everybody has stress, but it's how you handle that stress that can make or break your aging pattern.
wellness
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