Signs of ageing are an inevitable part of your life, but how soon you look old depends on what kind of lifestyle you follow. Looking at your reflection in the mirror, you perhaps wish to rewind to the time when you were young and beautiful. Even after using expensive anti-ageing products and eating healthy, there might be a few elements in your lifestyle that could ruin all your hard work. Here we reveal some shocking factors that are silently making you older every minute.
Drinking From Straws: Do you enjoy sipping your cold coffee or juice slowly through a straw? It sure is easy, convenient and fun but drinking from straw also could add those fine lines and wrinkles around your mouth as smoking does. Try avoiding those tempting and colorful straws to keep wrinkles at bay.
Exercise - Too Little or Too Much: This might sound amusing as we are living in an era where we are being fed with information that credits exercise for beautiful hair, beautiful skin and beautiful body. But too much or too little could do exactly the opposite to you. Too little exercise can increase the risks of obesity, heart problems and shorten your life span whereas too much exercise can increase the risks of arthritis and joint pains. You need to stop being lazy and avoid over-exercise as well, to stay energetic and fresh all day long. "Adequate Exercise" is what you need to keep in mind to stay young.
Sugar: Sugar is sweet, but can leave a bitter impression on your skin and overall health. Eating too much sugar is clearly bad for your waistline, and is linked with appearance of wrinkles and other ageing spots on your skin. Hike in sugar levels in your body causes glycation, a natural biochemical process that harms the collagen in your skin. Once the collagen is damaged, it normally hardens and causes wrinkles and sagging.
Soap: Soap, you might think is your skin's best friend when it comes to killing those dirty and bad germs but actually when it comes to your skin, it is not. Your skin has an acid layer that is a protective barrier for the skin. Soap is generally alkaline and when you wash your skin with soap, this protective shield is getting removed and dries out the skin, eventually causing wrinkles. It is advisable to change to pH neutral and chemical free cleanser and keep in mind that there is something called over - cleansing your skin that is equally bad for you.
Stressful Job: Now, you can blame your boss for those dark spots and dark circles on your face.Job is very important in life but what if your job is a major factor that is making you look older? Your job could be the biggest reason for your premature ageing. Work is one of the biggest sources of stress to many people. Recent studies reveal that stressful work can increase the risk of heart disease and speed up cell ageing. Too much time at work could cause too little time to spend on self such as proper exercise, adequate sleep and proper meals to name some. Try avoiding stress at workplace to help minimizing damages due to stress and try to enjoy and relax during weekends.
Air Conditioners: Air conditioning such as heating and cooling the room are a root cause to accelerate the process of ageing and can severely cause skin drying and lead to premature ageing and wrinkles. To help your skin look youthful and fresh, turn down the heating and start wearing more layers of woolens to keep yourself warm. Keep a glass of water in the room to increase the amount of humidity in the environment and apply the right cream on your skin to keep it moisturized.
Listening to Loud Music: Hearing loss is what happens when you are as old as your grandparents but listening to loud music and not taking proper care of your ears could lead to hearing loss at a very young age. Listening to loud music on your headphones for an hour could temporarily affect your hearing abilities while some studies say that listening to music in full volume could put you at risk of permanent hearing loss. Now you wouldn't want that, right?
Your Dirty Pillow Case: Do you believe in beauty sleep? Did you know that your beauty sleep could actually turn you old instead? Pillow covers extract all dirt and oils from your face and cause acne and pimples on your face. It is necessary to change the pillow covers every week. Plus, if your cotton pillow covers have imprints and embroidery, they are also believed to cause fine lines and wrinkles when your face is pressed on it while sleeping. It is advised to use pillow covers without any embroidery or to switch to satin pillowcases that create less fine lines than the cotton ones. Make sure that you sleep clean before you hit the sack.
Diets Low in Fats: We believe that cutting out fats helps us stay in shape, but cutting out healthy and good fats can harm your health instead. These good fats include omega-3 fatty acids present in fish, olives and nuts that are essential for your young and healthy look. They help to keep signs of ageing and wrinkles at bay, keep your heart in good condition, and can even help to increase your lifespan.
Watching TV: We are keeping the most shocking, jaw-dropping ageing factor in the end to hold your attention. You ever thought your inspiring chat-shows or the heart-touching movies could spell bad news for your health as they increase your waistline? Take yourself back to those long TV shows that made you drool on nachos, and potato chips, those long sleepless nights of watching movies back to back and not to mention the harm you are doing to your eyes due to the bright and harmful rays from your TV set. A recent research shows that each hour of watching TV could reduce 22 minutes of your life, and increase the risks of Alzheimer's disease.