You look younger than your age, you may have heard this sentence before, from people who find that your facial features and shape suggest that you are younger than your real age, and sometimes some see that you are older than your age! Is there a reason behind this common phrase? Why do some people look younger or older than their true age?
Chronological age versus biological age
We can summarize the answer to this question wholesale above! Besides the natural age of a person, there is another biological age that may make him older or younger than his real age!
Aging, in its simplest description, is a biological process that occurs with any living thing, be it a piece of fruit, a flower, an animal, or a person.
Old age
think about it. What happens to a piece of fruit or flower when it gets old? Her appearance changes drastically from lively and fresh to the other. The fruits rot, decay, and the flower wilts, this process is called aging.
When it comes to people and the aging process, some tend to look older than they are while others of the same age may appear younger, due to differences in the acceleration of their biological age relative to their chronological age, as explained in an article published by EBioMedicine.
What is the chronological age?
Your chronological age is the number of years from birth to the present. It is the number that we read when someone asks us about our age, and it is recorded in any official document bearing our name.
What is the biological age?
Your biological age describes the physical development of your body based on biomarkers, which are recordable cellular and molecular processes in the body. It is also determined by the length of an individual's telomeres, which are caps at the ends of the DNA strands. Telomeres affect how your body's cells age.
Therefore, a person with a younger biological age not only looks younger but is younger for all practical (biological) purposes! And the saying that age is nothing but a mere number applies in this context!
This may prompt you to wonder ,,
Can it slow a person's biological aging? And how is that done?
The answer is: Yes!
Get old
You can slow or speed up your aging, depending on the choices you make. Sure, there are factors that contribute to aging that are beyond our control such as exposure to air pollution, genetics, and time. However, there are many things that we control and we can change to affect the way we age.
5 of the most important factors affecting biological aging
Doing exercises
Fitness is a major player in warding off the effects of aging. Why? Because staying fit includes moving the body and increasing its flexibility. You can get many benefits from exercising. It promotes circulation, stimulates digestion, strengthens the heart, helps release toxins in the body and a host of other good benefits that help reduce inflammation in the body, which is associated with aging and disease.
If you don't exercise keenly, you encourage the build-up of toxins in the body and inflammatory responses that can lead to negative effects such as autoimmune disorders and other diseases.
Research shows that exercising at least 30 minutes 3 to 4 times per week will keep your body in shape
Cigarette smoking is one of the worst things you can do to harm your body. Smoking can accelerate the natural aging process of the skin. Cigarettes contain carbon monoxide, and more than 4,000 carcinogens (carcinogens). The American Cancer Society reports that cigarette smoking causes 30% of all cancer deaths in general and 87% of lung cancer deaths specifically.
Smoking
Other bad effects of smoking:
One of the negative effects of smoking is wrinkled skin and age spots, due to narrowing blood vessels and reduced blood flow to the skin due to nicotine consumption.
Depletion of oxygen in the bones, which may contribute to osteoporosis.
Smoking can lead to hair loss, psoriasis, cataracts, dental problems, sagging skin, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a host of other conditions.
Cigarette smoking adversely affects the organs of the body, especially the lungs and the heart, and can lead to blood clots due to narrowing of the arteries, which may lead to strokes and heart attacks.
The old saying, “You are what you eat” is really true, if you really think about it. Or maybe you should say "Looks like what you eat". The truth of the matter is that health and healthy skin originates from the inside out and goes beyond the skin.
Nutrition
Nutrition (good or bad) is the fuel that affects the quality and resilience of nearly every organ, cell, and system in the body.
The reason unhealthy foods are so bad is that they are full of saturated fat, sugar, sodium, and other toxic ingredients, such as MSG, trans fats, and nitrites, to name a few. Excessive consumption of poor diet options can negatively affect your appearance and make you look old and sick.
Constant exposure to sunlight
Sun exposure
Some sun exposure is good for your health because it is the best way to ensure that your vitamin D is at the required level. However, excessive exposure to the sun damages the skin and overexposure to the sun can damage skin cells, causing age spots and wrinkles, making you look older.
The skin fibers called elastin get damaged over time by the UV rays coming from the sun. This is why excessive exposure to UV rays from direct sunlight can put you at an increased risk of skin cancer as well as premature aging by up to 80%.
Not drinking enough water
Drinking water
The body needs enough water to function properly. The body uses water well. It regulates metabolic and chemical reactions and maintains body temperature to maintain its systems and the functions of all its organs, tissues and cells. Water also aids in transporting nutrients throughout the body and aids in eliminating waste products and maintaining healthy skin.
Everything water does to the body has a lot to do with how the body ages. If the skin, cells, organs, and tissues are not sufficiently hydrated, they will begin to dry out and dysfunction.
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