How To Look & Feel Younger

Top Tips from Springs Health & Wellness Clinic in Warrington on How To Look Younger!

Stay Hydrated: We’re talking water, not fizzy drinks or juices! Drink 8 glasses of water a day, bring a reusable water container with you when you go out and use it to stay hydrated while you’re on the move. Your skin will thank us later!

To get your daily dose of H20, try using filtered water, or if that doesn't sound appealing to you, add lemon or lime slices, cucumber or orange to your water bottle. That way your drink stays flavoured until the very last drop!

Keep in mind that how much you need depends on activity levels and what time of year it is.

Sleep Well:  To start, you need to make sure you’re getting enough sleep. There's no one number that applies to everyone. Sleep needs vary person-to-person, and they also change over time. Kids have different sleep needs than adults and older people. And babies have different sleep needs than kids or adults. Population studies suggest that 7 hours of sleep a night might be best for most people. But you may find that 8 hours is what works best for you (or maybe 6 hours).

The standard advice when it comes to getting a good night's rest is to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning, including on weekends and holidays -- yes, even then! If your body gets into a regular rhythm like this, it will become accustomed to going to sleep at the right time each night (and waking up without an alarm).

Set yourself up for success by creating a calm sleeping routine that involves preparing physically and mentally for bedtime. Try taking a warm bath or shower before bed, dimming the lights, listening to relaxing music or reading a book if you find it hard to fall asleep in silence. Avoid looking at bright screens from televisions, smartphones or computers from about two hours before bedtime in order to give your brain time to power down before sleeping

Eat to keep your blood sugar balanced: Balanced blood sugar is a great way to keep your skin looking fresh and healthy. It also helps you avoid overeating and ageing faster, which I’m sure you don’t want! Here are some ways to keep your blood sugar balanced:

• Eat healthy foods like vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, fruit (not too much), fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, meat (grass-fed or wild-caught if possible), and eggs.
• Avoid refined sugar (like in cakes, sweets etc.), white flour products (like bread, biscuits etc.), and fried foods. These cause spikes in blood sugar levels that make it harder for your body to maintain balance.
• Exercise! This can be challenging but it’s worth it once you get into the habit of working out every day. Try walking or running instead of sitting down all day long; these activities help keep glucose levels lower so they don't spike up during meals when we eat too many carbohydrates.
• Stress management techniques such as yoga or meditation may also help prevent spikes in glucose caused by stress hormones like adrenaline; this lowers insulin resistance over time which means less fat storage on our bodies from those pesky carbs we love so much 🙂

Take supplements and vitamins with your doctor's advice: Although supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet, they can help you ensure that you are getting the nutrients you need. If you are taking medication or are under a GPs care, make sure to follow their directions and recommendations carefully. Many supplements may be beneficial for some people but harmful or ineffective for others. The same supplement that works wonders for one person may do nothing at all to solve the same problem in another person.

Move, stretch and be physically active every day: In addition to the various health benefits, physical activity can help you look and feel younger. It improves your mood, increases energy levels, and reduces stress. Some of the best ways to stay physically active include walking or jogging outdoors, doing yoga or Pilates at home, cycling on a stationary bike, or swimming laps at your local gym or community pool.

Stretching exercises also go a long way toward keeping you looking and feeling young. All it takes is ten minutes each day of stretching your neck from side to side, raising your arms over your head and bending at the waist (or going for a quick run around the house if that's more your speed). Stretching helps maintain flexibility in your limbs and joints—and just like physical activity does, it will make you feel more energetic because it gets the blood flowing throughout your body.

Keep stress in check: Stress is a fact of modern life. It's how you handle the stress that matters. In fact, research suggests that chronic stress can accelerate ageing and even shrink the brain. So, learning to manage stress is important — not just for your health, but also for your quality of life.

Exercise may be one of the best things you can do to combat stress. It pumps up feel-good endorphins, boosts energy and endurance, and enhances your sense of wellness.

Try to make time for at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity on most days of the week — such as brisk walking or bicycling — in addition to strength training twice a week. Yoga or progressive muscle relaxation may also help reduce stress.

How you breathe can have a powerful effect on your body and mind too. When you're feeling stressed, taking a few minutes to focus on deep breathing can help calm both your mind and body.

Consider these suggestions:

Sit in an upright position with one hand on your abdomen just below your navel and the other hand on your chest. Breathe in slowly through your nose so that your stomach moves out against your hand while keeping the other hand as still as possible. This type of breathing engages the diaphragm — the muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity — thereby helping fill more air into each lungful than usual shallow breathing does. If this style is new to you, practice it when doing everyday tasks such as brushing teeth so it becomes second nature when you need it under stressful conditions

Place one hand over each ear with index fingers touching at forehead level; cup hands around ears while inhaling deeply through the nose by expanding abdomen outward; hold breath briefly; exhale slowly through the mouth by contracting abdomen inward toward the back (you should hear a whooshing sound if done correctly).

Take long deep breaths, counting slowly until reaching 10 breaths per minute for several minutes daily

Get annual health checks and screenings: There's nothing quite like a good old-fashioned health crisis to make you feel your age—and there's no better way to feel younger than catching health concerns early.

It's important to be proactive about your health, regardless of your age, because some conditions will sneak up on you and catch you off guard. Getting annual screenings can help you catch diseases early and can prevent them from worsening later in life.

Ask your doctor what screenings are best for you based on your medical history, but here are some good starting points: blood pressure, gut microbiome checks, diabetes and cholesterol.

Eat a plant-based diet full of fibre as well as probiotics and prebiotics: Your microbiome is made up of trillions of microorganisms — bacteria, fungi, viruses and other living things — that live on your skin and throughout your body. A healthy microbiome promotes good health, but a disrupted microbiome can lead to disease. You can balance the bacteria in your gut by consuming a plant-based diet rich in fibre as well as probiotics and prebiotics.

Prebiotics are fibres found in fruits and vegetables such as apples, onions and garlic that beneficial bacteria feed on.

Probiotics are live cultures of healthy bacteria that you consume to support digestive health.

Use quality skincare products: Besides looking young, you want to feel great and have healthy skin. So, avoid harmful chemicals and ingredients that can irritate your skin or cause further problems. Unfortunately, a high percentage of skincare products contain harmful chemicals that can accelerate skin ageing and are now known to disrupt the skin's function and can cause changes in hormonal and microbiome balance.

Don't forget your sunscreen. This would be my biggest tip for everyone. Use at least an SPF50+ every day no matter what the weather outside, don't rely on your makeup to provide your SPF, you can now use a spray to apply over your makeup. Look for UVA, UVB, UVC and HVB protection.

Best practices for ageing well: These include living a lifestyle that incorporates healthy habits such as hydration, sleep, food, supplements and movement, as well as skin care products you can use to look youthful without making your skin worse.

Advice:

Set goals. One of the best ways to help you look and feel younger is to set realistic, achievable goals and write them down in your journal if this works for you. Sit down, take a deep breath, and read your goals over and over again. Then set tiny steps that will get you closer to achieving those goals.

Intentional movement at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes a session, mixing cardio with weight training or stretching. If you don't have access to a gym or exercise equipment, find an outdoor space where you can go for a walk or run around the block, dance around the house. Not only does exercise improve blood flow throughout your body, it increases energy levels and helps burn fat (plus it makes working out more fun).

Adopt an anti-ageing skincare routine all of which should come from high-quality products that have been proven effective in clinical studies. Use sunscreen every day even when it isn't sunny out; not only will it help protect against ageing caused by sun exposure but is also important as protection against UV rays from electronics and other sources as well.

By Donna Carey