Anti-Aging: How to Boost Your Immune System to Live Longer
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to effortlessly look young as the years go by and others show more visible signs of immunosenescence? Since we know that everyone ages differently on the outside, it is logical to conclude that everyone ages differently on the inside, too. Just like genetics support our physical features, our internal “beauty” also has a mix of genetic predisposition along with lifestyle choices. Even the best genes can’t really save a person from years of consistent unhealthy habits. That is why an essential part of the anti-aging industry is knowing how to boost your immune system to live longer and look better. In short, it may be better to eat a banana to feed what’s underneath your skin than to spend so much money on products to put on top of your skin.
Anti-Aging
Human immunosenescence is fascinating. Twin studies often reveal the lucky or unlucky tendency you inherit from your gene pool, but also highlight the importance of individual accountability in your lifestyle choices. Not everything is out of your control - certainly not your long-term health.
Eat well for anti-aging benefits.
Relax and enjoy life more for anti-aging benefits.
Get rest, slow down, and sleep properly for anti-aging benefits.
Stay active and get some exercise with a daily anti-aging lifestyle.
When you hear the term, “anti-aging,” you usually understand it to be about physical appearances and beauty industry tips. Put some expensive cream on or try the latest plastic surgery fad. There’s a focus in our society to look like we could live longer, but there’s not too much obsession in actually living longer!
Most online information fails to include medical reasons for pursuing anti-aging for beauty standards. The truth is anti-aging is at the root of why we boost immunity. Avoiding wrinkles is simply a byproduct. Who needs Botox or plastic surgery when you have a body with a biological soul in excellent shape? Who needs expensive skincare brands when you have great gut health?
How to Boost Your Immune System to Live Longer
Let’s start with some basic facts about the idea of living longer. If you slow down your individual body’s immunosenescence, you live longer. That’s it. When you are internally youthful, you stay eternally youthful on the outside by avoiding disease and cellular decay. Boosting immunity means preventing a variety of common ailments that arrive with age to the average person. Don’t be average about boosting your immune system and you may increase your anti-aging benefits quickly.
Anti-Aging - Immunosenescence
Overall, the best anti-aging habits include a lifestyle that supports the biological soul - brain, heart, lungs, and skin. Immunosenescence is the normal process of aging. To slow it down, you need to focus on the following lifestyle areas.
Gut Health
Stress
Sleep
Staying Active
Anti-Aging - Gut Health
In Immunity Strong: Boost Your Natural Healing Power and Live to 100, there are many great ideas about gut health. The Harvard Health blog also notes the same information, citing studies that measure the immune system responses of animals when it comes to basic vitamins and minerals, like vitamins A, B6, C, and E, and other basic nutrients: zinc, selenium, iron, copper, and folic acid. Instead of jumping on a diet fad to eat less, try eating more of the right foods instead.
Eat prebiotics.
Eat probiotics.
Eat food sources for Vitamins A, B6, C, and E.
Research foods with zinc, selenium, iron, copper, and folic acid.
Eat herbs and foods with antioxidant properties.
Include anti-inflammatory foods, herbs, and spices in your diet.
Pay attention to your Vitamin D intake.
How does any of this help with anti-aging goals? Older people experience dietary changes and even the elderly in stable countries experience micronutrient malnutrition. We tend to want to eat what we’re in the mood to eat as we get older. We tend to eat less, too. This overall decrease in nutrition leaves us too many opportunities to eat the wrong things instead of keeping our bodies young by supplementing with the best sources of nutrition.
Anti-Aging - Stress
Anything that relaxes you is going to help you stay young. Stress affects sleep and sleep is essential for homeostasis, a balanced and stable internal state. That impacts your immunity by disturbing your light-dark cycles within your brain - all stemming from poorly managed stress. If we often consider the brain to be the motor of the body, imagine what happens to a machine that never turns off, or worse, a machine that is running on its highest power all of the time. Stress is often the problem in people who feel they are feeling old or aging too quickly.
Identify your sources of stress.
Assess how much time you lose to stress.
Take up meditation.
Plan opportunities to laugh and relax with loved ones.
According to Harvard Health, we all carry different ideas about what stresses our minds and bodies. This is why it is so difficult to study it properly, but we do have a basic understanding in the medical field that stress impacts the biological soul. Keeping the brain distracted, the heart working too hard, the lungs inconsistent or agitated, and skin erupting with the release of toxins, stress can look like many things, including very common illnesses and signs of aging.
Anti-Aging - Sleep
Going back to the anti-aging benefits of sleep, it is important that after targeting sources of stress, you get proper sleep. While the two topics overlap, they are distinct. A person with stress may not sleep well, but another person who can’t identify a source of stress still can’t sleep.
Check what foods you’re eating and if anything upsets your stomach or possibly causes a mild allergic reaction that disturbs your sleep.
Remove sources of stress in the hour before sleep and try quiet or relaxing activities, such as reading or moving meditations to alleviate stress.
Adjust your schedule at home and with work to ensure you’re optimizing your alertness with a balanced amount of sleep. Go to bed earlier.
This is why there is an order to anti-aging lifestyle tips - eat well, relax, sleep, and stay active. You won’t really be interested in the next step, if you’re exhausted on a daily basis from a lack of sleep. If you need to see a doctor after trying all methods to increase overnight sleep, don’t wait.
Anti-Aging - Staying Active
Many people agree that exercise is healthy, and there is no doubt that the biological soul benefits from an active lifestyle. However, not everyone is in the mood to take up yoga, tai chi, or a gym membership. Starting small and focusing on movement is far more important than suddenly breaking into a sweat, hating it, and never doing it again. Staying active is about living an anti-aging lifestyle.
Go for walks.
Find outdoor recreational activities.
Socialize.
Have sex.
Make time for fitness goals.
Pick up a new hobby that gets you moving around.
If you’re only going to the gym, you may be missing the mark on staying young. The reason exercise is essential in healthy living is that it improves cardiovascular health. It’s literally good for your heart, which impacts your blood pressure, as in the fluid that manages the flow of all nutrients and toxins in and out of your body. And that’s how we land back on the immune system to stay young. You have to keep your immunity strong by staying active. That’s the anti-aging secret of many healthy people.
Anti-Aging vs. Beauty Standards
Many of us want to look young, and there’s nothing really wrong with that. We miss opportunities for real health, however, when we allow the narrative to always be anti-aging for the sake of sparing yourself from a wrinkle. Maybe if there was more partnership between the anti-aging beauty industry and anti-aging health industry, people would follow more preventative health habits and follow less trendy fads that are often unhealthy.
Doctor Robert Lahita is Clinical Professor of Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, a Professor at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and the Director of the Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Disease St. Joseph's Healthcare System. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Master of the American College of Rheumatology, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Dr. Lahita is the author of more than 16 books and 150 scientific publications in the field of autoimmunity.
Want to know more about the Biological Soul and how to live to 100? You can get Dr. Bob’s new book, “Immunity Strong” here on Amazon.