Aging Faster than You Should? – Slow it Down with Vitamins

If you live in a place where sunshine tends to be scarce (such as a location where winter seems to last much longer than summer!), than you may be missing out on a vitamin that can help to slow down the aging process. Vitamin D3 is the vitamin in question. This vitamin is made by the human body when sunlight is absorbed into the skin.

Let the Sun Shine!

Too much sun is bad for your skin, but so is not enough. The former problem we hear about quite a bit, the latter is discussed less often. During the summer and fall months, getting enough sun is easy enough, but after daylight savings time, a vitamin D deficiency could definitely arise.  Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin after all, and you need it to be healthy! But it is also known as an anti-aging vitamin as well.

Lack of Sun = Aging Vulnerability:

Without enough vitamin D3, your vulnerability with regards to aging goes up. That is because the sunshine vitamin protects you against cancer, keeps your bones strong and keeps your cardiovascular system young and well-functioning.

But there is more. Vitamin D3 turns up the heat on your immune system and supports it in its daily work. This vitamin supports the development of the brain; increases muscle strength and is beneficial for blood pressure and insulin secretion. There are 36 organ tissues in the human body that contain cells that respond in a favorable manner to this very important vitamin.

Vitamin D3 is an anti-aging device that can help your health in so many essential ways. Its heart-boosting benefits are well-documented, as are the ways in which it can keep your blood vessels strong and resilient to damage.

What Will Not Work:

If you are out in the sun as often as you can be, you may still not be getting enough D3. For instance, it is possible that you could spend all day out on the ski slopes on a sunny day and still be lacking in this vitamin. In wintertime in many areas of the United States, the sun does not have the energy required to transform this inactive vitamin in your body into the active form you need for it to do you some good.

Even if you are a healthy eater, you cannot eat your way to enough D3. You can get some of this vitamin from eating salmon and tuna, not to mention, D-fortified foods, such as orange juice, but not nearly enough. Consider this- you would have to consume large amounts of D-fortified foods to get the amount you require. That would be like 10 glasses of orange juice a day! Drinking that much OJ daily would lead to other problems, such as issues with your blood sugar.

What Will Work:

If you take a multivitamin, you will probably get a little of vitamin D3 in it but not a sufficient quantity. Take a look at the product label and see what it shows. Most do not have enough to be of real use.

You can however, take a supplement of the sunshine vitamin that will help you out considerably. Find out what you are getting in your multivitamin and then add a supplement that contains a total of 1,000 international units (IU). Take this on a daily basis. If you are aged 60 or old, aim for 1,200 IU.

It is best to take it with a little monounsaturated fat (the healthy kind of fat). Vitamin D3 is best absorbed in this manner.

Becca

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Kick Aging in the Butt by Eating Avocados

Are you an avid eater of avocados? Avocados are often believed to be a vegetable, when they are actually a fruit.

They do taste more like a vegetable and are often used more in a vegetable capacity. They are also a green wonder food that is rich in antioxidants. But that is not all – eating avocados can improve your longevity and can help to slow down the aging process.

There are different varieties of avocados. The avocado is shaped like a pear although some varieties are more round in nature. Their size can be anywhere from one ounce to up to four pounds. The time of year when avocados are most readily available is late winter and early spring although most grocery stores and markets have them available practically year round (be aware that when they are out of season they may be more expensive to purchase!).

Avocados are used to make guacamole which is a popular dip for everything from crackers to chips to carrot sticks. They are also often used in the making of salads as well as in breads, main dishes and some desserts. If you have never tried an avocado or do not eat them regularly then you are missing out on the many anti-aging benefits that they possess!

Avocados are very tasty and they are choked full of nutrients that can help the body to heal itself and also can help you to live a longer and healthier life. It helps to know the good that can be found in this delicious fruit.

The Goodness of Avocados:

When it comes to antioxidants, avocados come out a winner! They are full of many nutrients that can do your body plenty of good!  They are a rich source of antioxidants and they protect bodily organs and tissues from damage that occurs over time and as a person ages. Antioxidants are also excellent warriors when they come up against the free radicals that can damage and destroy cells throughout the body.

Avocados contain folate which is a micronutrient that the body needs to be healthy. If you consume a cup of avocados this will provide you with approximately 23 percent of the folate that you require on a daily basis. Folate is very good for the heart. Individuals who consume the appropriate amount of folate reduce their potential for heart attacks by as much as 55 percent.

Avocados contain potassium. In fact a cup of avocados will provide you with approximately 25 percent of your daily recommended dosage of potassium. Potassium will help to keep your heart and your arteries as healthy as can be.  Potassium is also capable of reducing the risk of high blood pressure and the worry over having a stroke.

Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fat (which makes it a healthy fat) found in avocados that can lower bad (LDL) cholesterol while at the same time increasing the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol in the blood. This is yet another reason to eat avocados.

For some people avocados are an acquired taste while other people enjoy the taste of them from the very first bite. It is important to point out that despite its many health benefits avocados are high in calories. For example a cup of avocados equals approximately 235 calories. For this reason you should enjoy avocados for their anti-aging benefits but you should not overindulge in them due to the high calorie count!

Becca

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Resveratrol – The Answer to Healthy Aging?

When most people think of ways to slow the aging process their minds usually wander to a variety of types of cosmetic surgery, including wrinkle treatments such as Botox.

The good news is that expensive procedures that come with their share of potential side effects are not the only way to go. To slow down the aging process or to put it another way, to invest in healthy aging, you need to learn more about a substance known as resveratrol.

Resveratrol (pronounced rez-veeri-tral) is an antioxidant that has the potential to slow down the aging process. It has also been shown to help with weight loss and to boost the immune system. But that is not all; this compound has potentially significant anti-inflammatory properties as well as anti-cancer properties. While all of these benefits of resveratrol have not been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the research findings so far are very promising.

Resveratrol is a type of antibiotic (or in plant speak, a phytoalexin) that is produced by plants and is a kind of defense mechanism. When plants are threatened by fungi or bacteria they synthesize this antibiotic in order to fight back and not become infected.

The same thing occurs when there is injury to the plant or if it is exposed to the radiation from harmful UV rays. The plant provides resistance from whatever is attempting to invade and hurt it. As a result the resveratrol saves the plant from decay or death and the healthy living tissue remains in place.

The anti-aging properties of resveratrol and its effect on longevity have been studied at large and continues to be studied. Much is known about how the compounds that make up resveratrol help the body to age slower. As a supplement resveratrol is best known for its ability to slow down aging in those who take it. It has been concluded that the health benefits of resveratrol reduce the physical signs of aging that make themselves known on our faces and bodies as time goes by. Many people notice a positive change in the condition of their skin after taking resveratrol supplements for a very short period of time.

The antioxidants that resveratrol is composed of help to prevent the formation of wrinkles and also help to get rid of the ones that have already started to develop on the skin. The supplements are also beneficial for scars on the skin as well as blemishes and pigmentations in the skin. Resveratrol can give the skin the natural and healthy glow that is often lost as a person ages.

When an individual reaches their forties this is when the signs of skin aging really begin to make themselves known. How you treated your skin when you were younger and the lifestyle you subscribed to starts to show on your face at this juncture of time.

The hope is Resveratrol can be shown in studies to give you back what time and less than healthy living has taken from you.

The jury is still out on Resveratrol and if it can live up to the claims people have made about it. Certainly it is controversial and its name has been linked to some high profile marketing issues.

But there are also companies out there offering Resveratrol products in a responsible manner and as another alternative to folks who want to look younger then the debate should be welcomed and followed. It’s a topic I’ll continue to follow and provide updates.

Samantha

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