December 2024

Certain lifestyle habits and diet can impact your physical and mental health, but did you know they can also make your body age either faster or slower? Here are several lifestyle factors that affect how old your body is.

As experts learn more about the aging process, it’s become apparent that humans have two ages: their chronological age and their biological age. Your chronological age is the number of years you’ve been alive, while your biological age refers to how old your cells and tissues are based on physiological evidence. For many, how old you are may not be the same as how old your body is.

In fact, aside from chronic diseases and other physical health issues, there are several factors – including lifestyle, diet and mental well-being – that can speed up or slow down your biological clock.

“What you do in your 40s and 50s may determine how you age as you get older, and the earlier you make changes to your lifestyle, the better your quality of life will be in the long term,” says Dr. Lee Lindquist, chief of geriatrics at Northwestern Medicine.

Here are six surprising things that can age you more quickly:

1. Added sugar

Added sugars are the single worst offenders for aging.

When sugars are heated, it causes a chemical reaction with amino acids – known as the Maillard reaction – that creates the distinctive flavor when foods are browned (for example, toasted marshmallows, caramels and bread crusts). While they may be appealing to the taste buds, the Maillard reaction can lead to glycation, a result of excess sugars in the bloodstream that damage proteins in the body, causing skin wrinkles, cataracts and heart disease.

Additionally, because foods with added sugars have no fiber, they’re absorbed faster, causing blood glucose levels to spike, which leads to insulin surges. Repeated surges in your blood glucose can cause heart disease, kidney problems, eyesight problems and neuropathy.

2. Stress

Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension that comes from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry or nervous. It triggers hormones that produce needed physiological changes to react to threatening situations.

While stress can be positive because it can help you avoid danger or meet a deadline, if it becomes chronic, the constant release of the stress hormone cortisol can lead to an increased chance of developing diseases that can age your cells and, therefore, you.

Studies have linked stress with cellular aging as a result of shorter telomeres, which are caps at the ends of chromosomes that help maintain the stability of DNA. With each cell division, telomeres get a little shorter as part of the normal process of cellular aging.

However, chronic stress and high levels of stress hormones are believed to accelerate telomere shortening, which leads to premature cellular aging and a higher risk of age-related diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.

Prolonged release of stress hormones also causes inflammation, which accelerates the aging of the immune system and can be dangerous to the cells, tissues and organs, leading to increased risk for chronic diseases and early aging.

“Everyone has stress, but its effects can be reversed if you make it a priority to engage in self-relaxation techniques, make positive social connections and become more physically active,” Lindquist says.

3. Poor sleep

Sleep is a fundamental part of your overall health and well-being. It comprises one-third of your life, affects all aspects of health and is affected by everything going on in your mind, body and environment.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep is when important processing, restoration and strengthening occur throughout your immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. It’s when your body and brain recover from daily activities, restore nutrients, clear toxic materials and recharge your system.

Getting enough good sleep is vital to cardiovascular health, metabolic health and brain health. However, if you’re sleep deprived, your brain won’t have the time to carry out vital tasks, and that can impair cognitive function.

The recommended amount of sleep for adults older than 18 years is at least 7 hours a night. An estimated 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. doesn’t get enough sleep.

t’s believed that an association exists between sleep deprivation and the molecular process associated with biological aging.

Researchers also say sleep disturbances are related to increases in blood markers of inflammation that can lead to chronic diseases. When you’re sleep deprived, your body starts to make more white blood cells, which over time can create an imbalance in your immune system and affect its ability to fight off illnesses.

A lack of sleep can also make you look older than your chronological age due to the following:

“Poor quality of sleep contributes to poor mental and physical health because when you’re tired, it prevents you from doing other things that keep you healthy, such as exercising and eating properly,” says Dr. Mandana Mahmoudi, the clinical director of sleep medicine at NYU Langone Health.

4. Lack of exercise

Many changes that are normally attributed to aging are, in fact, caused by lack of use of your body. Without exercise, people over the age of 50 may experience many health problems, including reduced muscle mass, reduced strength and reduced physical endurance.

The best way to stop physiological deterioration is through exercise that helps you age more slowly and live longer.

Just 30 to 40 minutes of exercise five days a week slows down biological aging and improves cardiac risk factors – like high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, blood pressure, diabetes, stress and obesity.

Some of the exercises that can slow down the aging process include the following:

• Endurance exercises. Endurance exercises – like brisk walking, jogging, swimming, biking and climbing stairs or hills – improve your cardiovascular function.
• Resistance exercises. Resistance exercise – like strength training with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells and weight machines – can slow down aging by improving muscle mass and strength while helping to preserve (and improve) bone density.
• Flexibility exercises. Flexibility exercises – like stretching and yoga – help keep you supple and reduce the risk of muscle strains, fractures and other injuries.
• Balance exercises. Balance exercises – like squats, back leg raises, side leg raises, wall push-ups and walking the line – help prevent injury and falls, which can cause almost instant aging.

5. Dehydration

Because the human body is composed of 60% water, staying hydrated is vital to every physiological function. People who stay well-hydrated throughout their lives are less likely to develop chronic diseases, may live longer and will probably live healthier.

In fact, a 25-year study conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute demonstrated a link between hydration and aging. According to the study, which was published in 2023, staying properly hydrated may slow down the aging process, reduce the risk of premature death and prolong a disease-free life.

When your body is dehydrated, your energy levels will plummet, your organs won’t work properly and your mental sharpness will suffer. You’ll age faster as a result in a variety of ways, including:

• Added stress on the heart. A lack of water can cause the heart to have to work harder to pump oxygen to the brain through the flow of blood.
• Painful joints. Without well-lubricated joints, the cushioning between your bones will decrease, causing them to rub together and causing you to feel joint aches and pains.
• Detoxification. Without water, your natural detoxification system that removes waste and harmful substances through urination, breathing, perspiration and bowel movements will cause you to become sick. Hydration supports your built-in detoxification process and enhances overall health.
• Skin dehydration. Without enough water, your skin may become dry, flaky and dull, making you more prone to wrinkles and premature skin aging.

6. Loneliness and social isolation

Loneliness is a powerful modulator of brain, mind and behavior that invariably accelerates the aging process by:

• Increasing inflammation
• Impairing immune response
• Heightening our sense of threat and risk from our surroundings
• Altering diet, exercise and sleep habits

“While there is no panacea to slowing aging, increasing our sense of connection to one’s self and others would go a long way!” says Dr. Jeremy Nobel, a primary care physician with Harvard Medical School and president of the Foundation for Art & Healing and Project UnLonely.

Researchers have found that loneliness increases a person’s biological age more than smoking.

According to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s 2023 report, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, social isolation increases the risk of premature death by 29% (equivalent to the impact of smoking 15 cigarettes a day), heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression and anxiety.

A large body of research shows that loneliness and social isolation have a serious impact on physical and mental health and on quality of life and longevity. The effect of social isolation on mortality is comparable to the well-established risk factors of obesity and physical inactivity.

Studies show that people who engage in meaningful, productive activities with others tend to live longer with more happiness, sense of purpose and better cognitive function.

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