How to Feel Younger: Embracing Change & Owning Aging

We all want to know how to look and feel younger, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we want to be younger. No we are not frail. No, we don’t need to slow down. No, we are not done living! We are always changing, and by embracing this change, we are taking the aging process into our own hands.

If you’ve attended one of our Women’s Health Conversation Conferences or have been visiting our blog, you know that we believe in the power of our own bodies. We know that we can own our health decisions through “active aging”. Our bodies, brains, and bliss are connected in so many ways. For a healthy brain and endless bliss, you need to treat and trust your body and vise versa. There’s even more good news. By embracing the power that your body had and has now, you’ll learn how to feel younger while still embracing the power and vitality that your body has right now.

The many, and sometimes surprising, ways that exercise is good for you

If knowledge is power, then 78 percent of people over 50 say they are empowered with the knowledge that exercise is the key to healthy aging. Yet fewer than 30 percent of all Americans invest a minimum of 30 minutes a day in their physical health!

Why is there a disconnect? We want to know how to feel younger and the answer is right in front of us! We are surrounded by media that sell us every imaginable potion, lotion, pill or surgery to augment the superficial veneer of youthfulness. But the only thing that comes close to preserving true youthfulness is free – and that’s exercise.

Let’s stop waiting for a magic bullet to blast us into health and take control of the potential that exercise gives us. If feeling powerful and strong and healthy are not reasons enough to get you exercising, here are a few concrete ways exercise will change your health.

1. Exercise is a whole-body remedy, from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes. Did you know that 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day significantly decreases your risk of dying from SEDS (Sedentary Death Syndrome)? This group of 33 chronic diseases accounts for 250,000 deaths per year in this country, more than any bird flu epidemic. The dire effects of these diseases are all positively decreased by exercise, just 30 minutes a day.
2. Did you know that exercise also protects you against more than 12 kinds of cancer? Exercise decreases your risk of developing colon cancer by 40 percent and the risk for breast cancer by 25 percent to 30 percent. And exercise decreases the risk of dying from prostate cancer by 50 percent.
3. Exercise will not only help you live longer, it will help you live better. Exercise can make you a better lover. Running and lifting weights will, of course, tone your body, but there’s more to it than that. Exercise will build endurance and stamina and stimulate blood vessels to make a chemical called nitric oxide, which makes them more elastic. Couple endurance and elastic vessels with increased blood flow and you have a miraculous remedy for erectile dysfunction. It’s better than any blue pill. When people want to know how to feel younger, what they don’t say is that they want to learn how to get back to their more passionate and energized selves.
4. Your brain loves exercise. In response to physical exertion, your brain makes a chemical called BDNF or “brain derived neurotrophic factor.” It’s Miracle-Gro for the brain. Your attention span will increase, and you can stay sharper longer. 
5. In addition to helping you mentally, exercise can help you emotionally. The “natural high” experienced by many people at the end of exercise is due to the release of brain stimulators such as norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. All three help ward off anxiety, stress, and depression. Simply put, exercise makes you feel good.

6. Exercise is also great for your metabolism. In fact, by building muscle you can become a fat-burning machine. Lowering the amount of belly fat you carry can decrease your risk of developing Type II diabetes by 30 percent to 40 percent. A man with a 40-inch waist and a woman with a 35-inch waist have significantly less risk of cardiovascular disease than their rounder peers.
7. Despite what the commercials on your television are selling, you don’t need to buy youth in a bottle. Exercise stimulates the release of natural growth hormone, which stimulates all tissues in the body to regenerate youthfully!

Exercise helps your risk for or the impact of many diseases associated with old age

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD)
  • Increases blood flow
  • Decreases risk of CVD
• Cholesterol
  • A small reduction in “bad” cholesterol decreases risk of CVD by 30%
• Cancer
  • Decreases risk of colon cancer by 40%
  • Decreases risk of breast cancer by 25% to 30%
  • Decreases risk of dying from prostate cancer by 50%
• Brain issues
  • Releases BDNF or “Miracle-Gro for the brain”
  • Releases serotonin, dopamine and improves mood
• Sexual dysfunction
  • Decreases erectile dysfunction by stimulating blood flow and vessel elasticity
  • Increases endurance and stamina
• Osteoporosis
  • Builds bone density
  • Prevents fracture

Active aging, taking ownership of the aging process through exercise and mobility, is the answer to the age old question or rather, new Google search query “How to feel younger”. Many of us weren’t taught that we have control over how we age rather than letting it control us. All the benefits you attributed to your youth are still within reach. In fact, we say good riddance to our 20s! Women’s Health Conversations is to help you find your strength, feel empowered, revitalized, and age the way you want to, at any age.