The Stressful Actions behind HEALTHY AGING

Photo  by legends2k 

Learning to manage stress can help you feel better about you since you will feel healthier. Stress can be a bad thing, yet you have the power to control stress. If you let stress control you, it will affect your health. You will likely feel sick all the time, or feel like there is no hope in your world even if there is hope. For this reason, you want to learn how to take control.

How can I take control of stress?

The first thing you need to do is to take a long look. Is your situation so demanding that it stresses you?  Get a view on life and decide if you want the positive or negative things offered to you. Figure out how stress will affect your health to see if it is worth hanging onto the negative. Next, ask do you eat right and do you get enough rest? How’s your diet? Is it a healthy diet or is it a junk food diet?

How do people learn to deal with stress?

People learn to deal with stress all the time. It will take time, yet if you want it bad enough you will do it. You have to learn how to cope with the stress before you can deal with it. However, if you do this it will make it easier for you and you will stay healthy. Therefore, the answer to your question is to learn new coping skills.

How can stress affect my health?

Stress can affect you in many ways.  Stress can make you feel sick more than normal. Stress can make it difficult for you to make decisions since it affects your concentration.  Your normal sleeping patterns can be affected by stress. Some people experience balance eating habits. Some people will eat more than normal and others will not eat at all. You might develop high blood pressure. You could also be affected to the point of living with heart disease. Stress causes anxiety and depression. Stress can affect your overall mental and physical character. You need to learn how to control stress before it takes over you and controls you. You cannot just jump in and take control, however, since it takes time to learn how to control stress. Still, the effort you put forth is the gain you get back.

How do I find the ways to control my stress?

You have many options. To learn how you can control stress, consider who you are and what you want from life. You can write down things that stress you the most. Keep in mind some things in life you have no control. For instance, you have children who will cause you stress. Perhaps you have a job, and sometimes it causes you stress. As you age, sometimes as a parent you feel helpless, since you have no control over your adult children. Remember, these children have rights to make their own choices, which may affect you, but you have no control. Let it go. Do not spend your time worrying or yelling at the children, since they are grown and will do what they please, just as you did in your youthful years. Work on you, not anyone else, since it is the key to finding ways to control your stress.

Learn how to say no and mean it. 

This is a great way to reduce stress. Do not be afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. If they cannot handle no, then the person likely feels rejection and needs help for self. Setting limits mean you have to do what has to be done first for you before someone.

Learning to manage your stress is not going to be easy but it can be done with some work and willpower.

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The Heart and HEALTHY AGING

As we grow older we, experience higher risks of heart disease, cholesterol increase, weaken joints, muscles, and so on. Most people who experience illnesses often feel frustrated and experience feelings of despair. People who suffer illnesses or tragedies unfortunately set themselves up, saying, “It can’t happen to me.” It can happen to any of us, which is why we should take the steps in our youth to prevent illnesses and tragedies. 

Many of us fail to take the steps in our youth. It hinders us to a large degree, yet we have options regardless of what we endure. 

According to experts in aging and heart disease is rising higher these days than ever. The aging progression alone slowly builds up through impulsive changes of the body and mind. The maturity phase carries on starting at childhood as the person works through puberty, teenage and so on. At this time the body and minds start to decline. As the person reaches mid-age or moves into advanced aging, the person starts to decline its natural physical functions. 

Aging alone starts as we are born and carries throughout our life. Through the process, the body has positive reflections on our bodily components and development, yet as we age negative effects take fold, which includes the declining phase. 

According to experts in medicine, no one can determine when our body becomes aged. At one time people 65 and older were considered the aged, yet today people are working further on than 65 years of age. In short, people are working in the 70s, 80s and even 90 years of age today, which returned a different view of the aged. 

Still, millions of American citizens are falling victim to heart disease, strokes, etc. What can they do? 

How to relieve emotional strikes after a heart attack: 

If you’ve experienced a heart attack, likely you feel frustrated, hopeless, etc. The emotions are common after any illnesses, yet you must take steps to control these negative emotions since it only causes stress on your body. The stress will wear you down and perhaps lead to another heart attack. Let’s stop it now. After illnesses, including heart attack learn to focus on the day, instead of yesterday and tomorrow. You only have control of each day you live. Instead of sweating weeks ahead, try doing something you enjoy. Walking is a great way to reduce the risks of heart attacks. You can also visit friends or family members that make you feel good about you. 

Support is essential. If you have support, you will have friends and family members who will open their minds to your feelings. You should never allow your feelings to linger in your own mind without expressing what you feel. Express your feelings to people you trust. Take time to listen to them and let these people know what you need. For instance, if you just need a friendly ear, then let them know. Holding back emotions leads to soaring complications. 

If you can find support groups in your area that is experiencing the same thing as you, then join the team. The support will help you to share information with people who understand what you are going through. It is frustrating to express feelings with people who have not experienced similar illnesses or experiences as you. Try to find someone that you can relate to and speak your feelings. 

Exercise: 

Exercise is the leading element we have offered to us in life that helps to reduce any disease, emotional reactions and so on. When you sit around feeling anxious, depressed, or despaired, you are working toward worse health conditions. Reverse your actions and take the steps to live longer by exercising each day. 

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Hormones and All that Good Stuff in HEALTHY AGING

Photo  by LlGC ~ NLW

Stomach weight is associated with making the arteries age. Your arteries supply blood throughout your whole system and if these become blocked it can cause many problems for you. Obesity can lead to a heart attack, memory loss, the skin will wrinkle and strokes can occur too, which is all caused by the blocked arteries. Your diet plays an important role in helping to keep these arteries clear. You need to include a certain amount of goods fats in your diet if nothing else eating nuts for a snack.  

Keeping the mind busy and enjoying activity helps the brain and it will help prevent depression, anxiety, and stress. Everyone seems to get these three things as we age because we slow down and don’t get out enough. It is very important to be with people and get that exercise to keep your mind from thinking and worrying so much. 

Watch your diet keeping it under control and enjoy many activities. You’ll feel and look better as you age. We can consider all these aspects, yet to find a clear vision of what healthy aging means to you, we have to consider hormones. 

The glands produce several hormones, including the Human Growth Hormone. (HgH) Science shows the body produces enough but it doesn’t release all of it as we age. The low levels of human growth hormone cause wrinkling of skin, reduction of energy and sexual performance. Gray hair is incurred from hormonal deficiencies. The hormone will also cause increases in body fats and puts you at the risk of heart disease. You will lose muscle mass from deficient HgH, which can lead to shrinking of bodily organs. 

Studies were conducted that shown results from 26 men. These men were between the ages 61 and early 80s. The studies have shown that the supplement of Human Growth Hormone slowed the aging process 10-20 years total. After giving HgH, these men showed improvements, which enhanced muscle strength. The skin tone was enhanced as well as the memory. The overall of aging has not been stopped but important signs of maturity are improved.

Vitamin A is known to help the eyes but in recent studies, it was discovered that it also helps release the human growth hormone. Just remember when buying supplements in a health food store the labels are not always accurate. 

When taking any hormone replacement supplements make sure that you consult with your doctor, only he or she knows what is best for you. Since supplements, Vitamins, or replacement therapies may include side effects, you want your doctor's advice first before administering these remedies. 

Women rely on estrogen to maintain healthy bones. Women need these hormones to reduce the risks of shrinking in bone density. Women will often experience symptoms that form into osteoporosis when estrogen is deficient. Estrogen will often slow as a woman ages, and usually, after menopause, the woman’s lipid levels drop. 

This can cause high cholesterol also, since LDL increases. In addition, lipid levels when increased can lead to blocked arteries, or coronary blood vessel/artery disease. After a woman goes through menopause she, starts to age for the reason that the ovaries begin to slow the production of progesterone and estrogen. These major hormones control menstrual cycles, which stop at this point. 

Men rely on testosterone to maintain their youth. This hormone controls a male’s sex drive, facial hair growth and so on. We all have our hormones that perform many actions, yet in some instances, we need replacement, especially as we grow old. Sometimes replacing the hormones will slow the aging process, thus promoting healthy aging. 

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Why MUSCLES Get Sore

Illustration of the pain pathway in René Descartes' Traite de l'homme (Treatise of Man) 1664. The long fiber running from the foot to the cavity in the head is pulled by the heat and releases a fluid that makes the muscles contract.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As people age, they begin to complain more of pains in their muscles and joints. They seem to stiffen up with age, and such commonplace activities as bending over for the morning paper can make them wince.

Such pain can grip so fiercely that they are sure it begins deep in their bones. But the real cause of stiffness and soreness lies not in the joints or bones, according to research at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, but in the muscles and connective tissues that move the joints.

The frictional resistance generated by the two rubbing surfaces of bones in the joints is negligible, even in joints damaged by arthritis.

Flexibility is the medical term used to describe the range of a joint’s motion from full movement in one direction to full movement in the other. The greater the range of movement, the more flexible the joint.

If you bend forward at the hips and touch your toes with your fingertips, you have good flexibility, or range of motion of the hip joints. But can you bend over easily with a minimal expenditure of energy and force? The exertion required to flex a joint is just as important as its range of possible motion.

Different factors limit the flexibility and ease of movement in different joints and muscles. In the elbow and knee, the bony structure itself sets a definite limit. In other joints, such as the ankle, hip, and back, the soft tissue—muscle and connective tissue—limit the motion range.

The problem of inflexible joints and muscles is similar to the difficulty of opening and closing a gate because of a rarely used and rusty hinge that has become balky.

Hence, if people do not regularly move their muscles and joints through their full ranges of motion, they lose some of their potential. That is why when these people will try to move a joint after a long period of inactivity, they feel pain, and that discourages further use

What happens next is that the muscles become shortened with prolonged disuse and produces spasms and cramps that can be irritating and extremely painful. The immobilization of muscles, as researchers have demonstrated with laboratory animals, brings about biochemical changes in the tissue.

However, other factors trigger sore muscles. Here are some of them:

1. Too much exercise

Have you always believed on the saying, “No pain, no gain?” If you do, then, it is not so surprising if you have already experienced sore muscles.

The problem with most people is that they exercise too much thinking that it is the fastest and the surest way to lose weight. Until they ache, they tend to ignore their muscles and connective tissue, even though they are what quite literally holds the body together.

2. Aging and inactivity

Connective tissue binds muscle to bone by tendons, binds bone to bone by ligaments, and covers and unites muscles with sheaths called fasciae. With age, the tendons, ligaments, and fasciae become less extensible. The tendons, with their densely packed fibers, are the most difficult to stretch. The easiest are the fasciae. But if they are not stretched to improve joint mobility, the fasciae shorten, placing undue pressure on the nerve pathways in the muscle fasciae. Many aches and pains are the result of nerve impulses traveling along these pressured pathways.

3. Immobility

Sore muscles or muscle pain can be excruciating, owing to the body’s reaction to a cramp or ache. In this reaction, called the splinting reflex, the body automatically immobilizes a sore muscle by making it contract. Thus, a sore muscle can set off a vicious cycle pain.

First, an unused muscle becomes sore from exercise or being held in an unusual position. The body then responds with the splinting reflex, shortening the connective tissue around the muscle. This cause more pain, and eventually the whole area is aching. One of the most common sites for this problem is the lower back.

4. Spasm theory

In the physiology laboratory at the University of Southern California, some people have set out to learn more about this cycle of pain.

Using some device, they measured electrical activity in the muscles. The researchers knew that normal, well-relaxed muscles produce no electrical activity, whereas, muscles that are not fully relaxed show considerable activity.

In one experiment, the researchers measured these electrical signals in the muscles of persons with athletic injuries, first with the muscle immobilized, and then, after the muscle had been stretched.

In almost every case, exercises that stretched or lengthened the muscle diminished electrical activity and relieved pain, either totally or partially.

These experiments led to the “spasm theory,” an explanation of the development and persistence of muscle pain in the absence of any obvious cause, such as traumatic injury.

According to this theory, a muscle that is overworked or used in a strange position becomes fatigued and as a result, sore muscles.

Hence, it is extremely important to know the limitations and capacity of the muscles in order to avoid sore muscles. This goes to show that there is no truth in the saying, “No pain, no gain.” What matters most is on how people stay fit by exercising regularly at a normal range than once rarely but on a rigid routine.

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