It’s common knowledge that things like, sun bathing, smoking and high level of stress can age you. However, there are several seemingly harmless daily activities that can age you just as much as smoking or excessive sun exposure.
“By the time you are 50,” Dr. Mehmet Oz said, “70 percent of how you age is going to depend on your lifestyle, the things that you do.”
First of the seven strange acts is simply, watching television. Although it is obvious that watching too much television can quickly expand your waistline, which ages you, it has also been found to literally shorten your life.
According to research from the University of Queensland, for every hour you watch television you may shorten you life by about 22 minutes.
Second, drinking from a bottle or through a straw can age a person. Although what you drink is important, how you drink can also cause skin damage.
Having lips in that particular puckering shape every time you drink can surface wrinkles around the mouth quicker. Simply drinking out of a glass can slow down that process.
Third, eating too much sugar is bad for both the waistline and the skin. When blood sugar levels rise, a process called glycation happens.
Sugar in the bloodstream attaches to proteins and form molecules called advanced glycation end products. These molecules then damage the surrounding proteins like collagen and elastic than make your skin firm. The more they damage the more you are prone to wrinkles.
Fourth, washing with basic soap can cause wrinkles to surface. Soaps generally contain alkaline, which removes layers of the acid mantle our skin naturally has as a protective barrier. This removes oils and causes it to dry out, which can allow wrinkles to settle in. Although not washing at all isn’t advised, using a chemical free body wash, is a way to ensure supple skin.
Fifth, listening to an iPod can be more damaging than you think. Loss of hearing is a prominent sign of aging, and listening to music with headphones can cause an early onset of this problem.
Listening to loud music just for an hour can cause permanent damage to the ears. On a basic MP3 player, having the volume set to 50 percent of his maximum capacity releases about 101 decibels directly into the ear, which is well over the recommended threshold.
Sixth, sleeping can age a person. Although it is common knowledge that too much, or a lack of sleep can age you, how one sleeps is important too.
Pressing the same side of your face against a cotton pillow case every night can reduce your skins moisture levels and produce fine lines and wrinkles. Simply switching to a satin case, or sleeping on your back can help prevent those wrinkles to appear.
Lastly, maintaining a low-fat diet can also cause early aging. Cutting our fats may seem like a good idea to shed a few pounds, but the effects of cutting out food fats are quite severe.
For example, Omega-3 fatty acids, found in most fish, walnuts and flax seed, play an important role throughout your body. These fatty acids are essential for protecting your brain, heart, bones, joints and skin.
These seven strange aging activities are quick and easy changes you can make in your everyday life that will keep you looking and feeling younger.
