5 steps to stop premature ageing.

A hot topic nowadays and one I absolutely love! How can we age well, gracefully and with vitality? No matter how old you are or what health problems you have, there is much that can be done to preserve your youth, decrease the risk of degenerative diseases associated with ageing and even turn back the clock. An active and well-nourished 50 year old can easily have a better health profile than a sedentary and under-nourished 30 year old. In this respect, age is but a number, which is a liberating thought. There are a plethora of nutrition and lifestyle adjustments that we can make to influence how well we age.

Here are 5 nutrition and lifestyle variables I look at in clinical practice to support a client who wants to stop premature ageing:

Reduce inflammation.

The older we get, the more we have been exposed to adverse dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors; some of which have been within our control and some have not. Many of these can cause inflammation and if this becomes chronic, it is a major contributing factor in many degenerative diseases that we associate with getting older. Inflammation can be caused by so many differing, accumulative factors including poor diet, poor sleep, excess alcohol, high levels of stress, chemicals in the environment and much more. Over time, these can inflame our body and ultimately contribute to the ageing process. Testing C-reactive on a blood test can be a good place to start to ascertain your level of inflammation. Much can be done to reduce it, such as the inclusion of anti-inflammatory foods in your diet, stress management, improving sleep hygiene and a whole host of other factors. 

Keep your hormones in check.

If there is one single cause of accelerated ageing and diseases of ageing, it is refined sugar and starch, and the insulin resistance and metabolic chaos that follows. Consumption of these causes disruption to our hormonal and neurotransmitter pathways and every other core system. We live in a hormone disrupting world, which is causing / worsening PMS, menopause and female cancers, so women need to pay extra special attention to balancing their hormones. Too much sugar, low fibre diets, nutritional deficiencies, alcohol, xenoestrogens, stress and lack of exercise all drive hormonal imbalances. What we eat also directly impacts our thyroid function, which has a knock on effect on our metabolism.    

Support your mitochondria.

This is the ‘energy powerhouse’ within every single cell in our body. Essentially, we need our mitochondria to be nourished and healthy to age well. Our mitochondria need the right type of fuel to function well but they also need this fuel at the right time. The problem in our society today is that so many of us ‘nibble’ or ‘graze’ on food all day long and never give our bodies ample opportunity to rest. Resting our digestive system allows cells to clean up waste, debris, recycle old parts, make new cells and activate our antioxidant and anti-inflammatory systems. When you combine the best foods with the best timing, we activate all of the healing mechanisms needed to keep our mitochondria healthy. Our mitochondria requires specific nutrients including the B vitamins, CoQ10, carnitine, zinc, magnesium, selenium, omega 3, lipoic acid, vitamin E, vitamin K and others to function properly and provide a metabolic ‘tune-up’. This is one of the biggest keys to healthy ageing.

Feed your beneficial bugs.

The inner garden of our gut houses trillions of bacteria - the good, the bad and the ugly. The right foods keep your good gut bugs happy and the wrong foods create havoc, driving inflammation and leaky gut. This impacts not only how well our digestive system functions but also how effective it is at absorbing nutrients. Our gut microbiome holds the key to healthy ageing, both as an indicator of health and by its influence on the immune system and the body's natural repair mechanisms. 

Movement daily.

You simply have to get your body moving now or it won’t be able to move later on in life! Exercise automatically improves all of the hallmarks and the root causes of ageing. It improves blood sugar control, insulin sensitivity, helps control weight, reduces the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It improves mood and cognitive function. It reduces the risk of cancers, improves sleep quality and enhances your immune function. To name but a few key reasons why regular exercise is beneficial for turning back the clock!  

Resistance training is of particular note here, as muscle mass and strength declines with age. Low muscle mass equals slow metabolism and frailty. The combination of high quality protein (containing all essential aminos acids), together with regular resistance training is the magic formula. Your body needs the branched-chain amino acids (especially leucine) to make new muscle. 

The well-known phrase: “Your genetics load the gun, your lifestyle pulls the trigger”, has never been more relevant.

If all the science feels overwhelming, it doesn’t need to be. It is the job of a Nutritionist to simplify all of the research by translating it into an easy-to-follow nutrition and wellness programme for you.