Staying Young

Showing posts with label Low-Density Lipoprotein. Show all posts

Resist The Force Of Aging

If you’re the type of person who would rather watch TV and eat all day long than giving you’re muscles a little more stretch, better think twice. Here’s the deal: this lifestyle speeds up aging. How? Well, inactivity accelerates aging in two ways: it decreases our muscle strength and gives us extra pounds.

Muscle meltdown

As we age, the quantity and strength of our muscle fibers diminish. Truth to the matter is, we lose two to four pounds of muscles every ten years. Decreased number and strength of muscles causes our muscles to lose flexibility, losing our usual range of motion and optimal strength.

Lack of exercise is to blame. It was found out that not exercising for even just a week weakens our muscles significantly. In fact, if you don’t exercise for a month, you will lose almost 50% of your original muscle strength. Some people may not even notice their atrophied muscles because of the fatty buildup in their body. Blame that too to lack of exercise.

Gaining extra pounds

The simple logic here is that if you are inactive, you gain extra pounds, and extra pounds can age you. But hey, there’s a missing link. How does an increase in weight speed up aging?

Researchers have recently found out that as people become heavier and became more insulin resistant (a common side effect of being fat and heavy), their telomeres (strands of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protect the tip from destruction and classically shorten with age) shrank more than those of people who didn't increase their weight and developed more insulin resistance, an apparent sign that the aging process was speeding up among overweight. Researchers suppose that the stress caused by increased weight and insulin resistance spawn inflammation and free radicals that damage cells. Simply put, a heavier body ages its own DNA.

The Solution

But the good news is, you can recover what you have lost and slice off what you have gained. Research clearly shows that a healthy lifestyle and exercise can help keep your DNA younger.

In studies, regular exercise has been proven to keep you from diabetes, muscle atrophy, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and heart diseases. Regular workout helps prevent hypertension, reduces body fat, raises High Density Lipoprotein (good cholesterol), lowers Low-Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol), improves circulation, keeps the bowel healthy, and regulates key hormones.

An anti-aging workout is best for you! This includes consistent cardio, yoga, and weight training.

You can do jogging, cycling, walking, and swimming for thirty minutes a day for about five times a week. Doing these of higher intensity everyday can be helpful in bringing more blood and oxygen to our brain. These activities also guard your heart by lowering blood pressure, reducing LDL, and keeping arteries flexible to improve circulation.

Lifting weights should also be part of your roster of activities. Weightlifting for 20 minutes a day, twice a week can be of great help in having strong bones, and muscles, which of course includes the heart. For beginners, 3-5 pound dumbbells will do.

Doing yoga is one of the best activities to fight stress. It relaxes the body, thereby, keeping stress from burning you out. It also protects the body against free radicals that break down the elasticity of the skin.

More Benefits

Exercise does not only keep you young, it also helps you sleep, firms you up, improves your mood, keeps you slim, and take note of this, charges up your sex life :D

Being Young And Healthy With Apricots

Sphere: Related Content

This delectable yellow-orange drupe is a source of glee to its avid fans. Whether you like it straight from your hand or in a sweet dessert, this pubescent-surfaced fruit surely delivers lots of benefits to the body. As tasty as it is, an apricot is as well helpful to boosting your youthfulness.

A younger-looking skin and healthier lives of those who include a couple of this fruit in their daily diet is an obvious evidence of what it can bring. Now let us take a closer look at how this wonderful fruit can be very useful to you.

Carotenoids

The secret of apricot’s power lies in its high-level of a mighty antioxidant called carotenoids. The oxygen-free forms of carotenoids such as lycopene, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene are the organic pigments helpful to men.

Beta-carotene is being converted by the body to Vitamin A which is beneficial to the eyes- it protects the eyes from functional deterioration, lessens the risk of acquiring cataracts, and prevents the eyes from xerophthalmia – a disease that dries the conjunctival epithelium.

Apricots also protect the heart through its famous bright red carotenoid called lycopene. Lycopene protects the heart by reducing the blood levels of Low-Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) which causes formation of plaque in the blood vessels, which in turn, precipitate a number of heart diseases. The Department of Agriculture of the United States says that Lycopene is the most potent antioxidant among other carotenoids as this extinguishes peroxyl radicals that damage the DNA that initiates cancer. Lycopene helps in fighting breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Dried apricots are good sources of lycopene. People susceptible to these diseases should include apricots in their diet.

Other properties and benefits

Velvety apricots are also high in fiber. Apricots are used to prevent and allay constipation and can even induce diarrhea. Three apricots are enough to take effect. This means also that it can help you slash your weight, have a normal digestion, and control high blood levels of sugar. Fiber also keeps the blood vessels from being congested.

Apricots are also high in potassium that helps in regulating the blood pressue and the contraction of the heart.

The kernels of apricots are equally nutritious. Each kernel has several helpful properties that are proven to assuage cough and helps the respirator system to be toned. But before eating a kernel, the tip of the seeds should be cut off as this contains high levels of laetrile that can upset the stomach.

Apricots are also rich in Vitamin C and iron.

Apricots also help the body fight Alzheimer’s disease, memory loss, and an eye-disease called Age-Related Macula Degeneration.

Around the World and Beyond

Apricot is a traditional Chinese medicine that helps in restoring lost body fluids (which also prevents dehydration) and in detoxifying the body. Without knowing why they did, the Chinese also ate apricots to improve their fertility. Now we know that this fruit is abundant in minerals that boost the production of sex hormones.

In the Hunza Valley in Himalayas, people used apricots as staple food. Many centenarians live in this area.

Because of that benefit, Europeans have long thought of apricots to be aphrodisiacs. In fact, William Shakespeare depicted apricot in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as such. In The Duchess of Malfi, apricots were depicted as an inducer of childbirth

Three centuries ago, the English used apricot oil to fight tumors and ulcers.

Officials of National Aeronautics and Space Administration said that astronauts (in flight) included apricot on their menu for a number of occasions already. In fact, apricots have been on the menu of the Apollo 15 trip.