10 Top Anti-Aging Tips for a Youthful Mind, Body, Spirit

Suzanne Andrews, star of Functional Fitness on PBS TV shares how you can become empowered with an age defying mind/body and spirit with these 10 top anti-aging tips.

The desire for youthful energy never leaves and is capable of staying with you well until your later years. Boomers are, however, faced with the old adage, “use it or lose it.”   It’s no wonder boomers are keen to put passion back into their lives and fight the effects of aging.  True we are living in a society with an obesity epidemic and what a better motivator than  living an independent life well into ones retirement with an increased zest and ability to perform activities of daily living with greater ease and function.

How do function and aging co-exist and blend with fitness?  They are a twin-ship, even if we don’t see them that way.  No one wants to feel and look old before their time. Much of what we blame on aging: weakness, decreased range of motion and obesity can be reversed in 30 days.  How do we look and feel younger in 30 days? Through a blissful discipline called Functional Fitness.  

Americans are getting older every minute and life expectancy is ever-increasing.   People leading full productive lives after the age of retirement are no longer a “wow.”  Most baby boomers want to live active lives and learn how to enjoy a fulfilling active life.  You’re as fit as your body is functional.  Contrary to popular opinion, not even all young people are limber, for keeping flexibility relies on regular stretching. However flexibility, one of the three primary components of physical fitness, is extremely important to attaining a healthy life.  Without flexibility, simple activities, such as reaching and bending become painful. True, muscles shorten with age, but according to the National Foundation for anti-aging, “most aging is premature.”  Here are 10 tips to help you stay younger, fitter and functional. 

1- Drink six to eight glasses of water each day. Hydrate skin, nourish it, and prevent wrinkles. 

2- Stretch and strengthen your legs. Doing calf raises and tiptoe walking every other day improves circulation and helps prevents spider veins. 

3- Incorporate upper-body exercises. Lift mini dumbbells, and stretch back muscles. This protects against osteoporosis. 

4- Strengthen your abs five days a week. Sit-ups enhance blood flow to vital organs, repairing tissue damage.

5- Add aerobic exercise. Keep your heart and lungs youthful and fit. 

6 – Choose aerobics that enhance brain power. Jogging, bicycling, and speed walking sharpen memory and increase attention span. 

7- Use diaphragmatic breathing. Inhale through your nose so debris and pollutants are filtered from the air. Make your belly rise, and then fall slowly, exhaling through pursed lips. Relaxed breathing decreases levels of stress hormones that accelerate aging. 

8- Eat baked, broiled, or grilled salmon two times per week. Its omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins combat disease-causing free radicals.

9- Try colorful vegetables. Dr. Roy Vartabedian, author of “Nutripoints,” and Nutrition Expert for Functional Fitness starring Suzanne Andrews, ® recommends spinach, broccoli and romaine lettuce daily with lunch and dinner.  Dark green vegetables have cancer-fighting properties and vitamin C to boost your immune system. Tomatoes are also on this “fighter veggies” list.

 10- Enjoy fresh fruit for dessert.  Dr. Vartabedian suggests cantaloupe, guava, and papaya. These also combat the cell damage that causes premature aging.

Learn More about Anti Aging Exercise

Secrets to Affordable Aging Revealed

With sky-rising healthcare costs, the cost of aging is steadily climbing .  It seems the more we make, the cost of everything continues to increase.   As a result, medical bills have the power to eliminate most of the money we put away for other things, like vacations or gifts for the grandkids. So, what do you do?

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute a man who retires at 65 can expect to live until 83. He will need to have around $65k to $109k in those years to cover insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses. That works out to $270 to $450 a month.

For women, the EBRI says retiring at 65 and living until 85 will mean she’ll need $88k to $146k for insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses which works out to $366 to $608 a month.  Both men and women will need these amounts on hand to provide a 50% chance of having enough to cover these expenses. If you’re getting $1000 a month from Social Security these costs will eat up about 25% to 60% of those payments alone.

If you have managed to secure a considerable nest egg, good for you. If you haven’t, it might be time get some part time work. Besides, retirement is boring. You know, all that rest and relaxation gets old pretty quick.

Here’s a novel idea that can save you money on healthcare costs.   Stay out of the health care merry-go-round as best you can.  And just how do you do that? Start an exercise program geared towards your needs, abilities or limitations. That means if you’re in a wheelchair seek seated exercise programs. If your knees are gone, ride a bike or do some gentle exercise programs.  If you have asthma, don’t take up hiking in the mountains.  Start slow and take walks around the neighborhood. It’s important to find something you enjoy because you’re more likely to do it. The more you do it the healthier you get. If you have arthritis, do an exercise program especially for arthritis and limber up your joints and muscles.

You needn’t strive to be an athlete.  If you are just getting started, exercise will make you healthier.  You’ll have stronger muscles to lift things, denser bones to absorb shock from falls and a stronger heart to pump more blood and oxygen to all the organs in your body which makes them all work better. Pills, sometimes necessary, are not always an easy fix and can cause many undesirable side effects and mask the symptoms.   Exercise can eliminate the cause. There are countless examples of people who were taking a dozen pills a day that went down to 2, 3 or none a day because of regular exercise.

The healthier you are, the less likely it is you will have to employ the skills and costs of doctors, nurses, therapists and pharmacists for whatever ails you. They worked long and hard to acquire those skills and they can’t afford to work cheap.  Plan for your health now instead of being a patient for your health care plan.

Kick and Scream Your Way to a Younger Body

So you're older now and here's what you can expect.

It's harder to work off that spare tire.   You're hair thins and then falls out, muscles weaken from disuse, vision becomes blurred, hearing is diminished, balance is off center, bones thin, joints become arthritic and your skin gets wrinkles. Whew! I think I'll just go back to bed.

Now not so fast. All is not lost, at least not yet. There is nothing we can do about getting older, but there is plenty you can do about aging. Getting older doesn't mean we can't age without kicking and screaming the whole way.

Here's what I propose you get yourself used to. Exercise, some kind of exercise, every day. Now if you're thinking, "But I've never exercised a day in my life, why start now?"  Go look in the mirror. Compare that image to the old photo of you at the beach 20 years ago. Yeah, I know. This only happens to other people. Sorry, it's happened to you.  But exercise is not just about looks, it's about staying healthy and functionally fit.  

Exercise and proper care of your skin can significantly reduce and slow down the aging process inside and out. Let's take a look under the microscope & see what's going on inside you and every human being that's getting older.

You've got chromosomes with genes in them. On the ends of these gene strands are what's called telomeres (DNA). These little telomeres act just like those plastic wraps, or caps, around the ends of your shoelaces. As we age the telomeres deteriorate and the shoelaces (chromosomes) begins to fray and come apart as they continually replicate themselves.

During cell division, enzymes that duplicate the chromosome and its DNA cannot continue their duplication all the way to the end of the chromosome. If cells divided without telomeres, they would lose the ends of their chromosomes, and the necessary information they contain. The telomeres are disposable buffers blocking the ends of the chromosomes and are consumed during cell division and replenished by an enzyme called telomerase. When this happens some of the DNA is lost and genes deteriorate which promotes the symptoms of aging.

There is no known way to reverse this process but there are many ways to fight it. Five small meals a day instead of three big ones. If you're not a construction worker, don't eat like one. Keep it light and low cal. Perform weight bearing exercises, start light and work your way up to heavier loads. No matter what your age is your muscles will respond to lifting weights, period. Exercising helps to maintain hormonal balance. All the hormones flowing through your blood increase and help your organs operate to their best ability. It's like putting high test gas in your bloodstream; you'll run like a top.

Thirty minutes a day of exercise is enough to get your hormones pumping. It's also very important to stretch after exercise of any type. Keeping the range of motion in your arms and legs are what help you keep doing the things you love most. Applying skin care products to your face and body will keep your skin smooth and clear. This is good advice for men too.

All this sounds like a bunch of extra work but the payoff at the end of the day is you'll sleep like a baby. Say goodbye to insomnia and any other sleep disorders you may have. Want to know why? Because you're going to be pooped! But you'll wake up with more energy, a younger body and a sharper mind. That's something that no pill on earth can offer.

Copyright © 2011 Functional Fitness starring Suzanne Andrews