Aging Well and Lifestyle Choices

Aging Well and Lifestyle Choices

Is there anyone among us who is not in favor of good health and preventing the onset of premature aging and age related health conditions?  Yet, for many of us, we continue to make lifestyle choices that work against these positive outcomes.  Current research tells us that it is our lifestyle choices which determine the state of our health and how well we age.  In fact, our lifestyle choices can even affect inherited traits from our DNA which means we are not necessarily doomed to suffer the same diseases our grandparents and parents may have had in their lifetimes. We have the freedom to choose to live healthier lifestyles and reduce our risk of those inherited diseases, and perhaps live longer and remain more active and fit than our ancestors.

Our diet, exercise habits, stress and environment will affect the gene expression as to how healthy we are and how well we age.  One can choose to live in a healthy environment and take personal responsibility for staying fit and well by choosing to eat right and exercise regularly.  Avoiding unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, and eating chemical-laden processed and GMO foods are a great beginning to protecting your health, youth and vitality. All these habits negatively affect our genes and predispose us to disease.  There is a complex network of chemical switches that sit on top of the genes. These switches surround our DNA and turn genes on and off.  This network of chemical switches is known as the epigenome.  The epigenome interacts with our environment. Everything we come into contact with and everything we put into and on our body has the power to turn genes on or off via different chemical pathways. The end result is the ability to change the way our body expresses our genetic coding and which traits will be realized in our lifetime. This expression of traits will vary during our life, primarily depending on levels of stress, exercise habits, environmental exposure to toxins and diet.

Your body has all the resources and has infinitely adaptable systems to self-regulate, repair, regenerate, and thrive.  You must to learn to work with the body to help it do its job rather than making choices that work against it.  The body is an amazing mechanism comprised of trillions of cells, and approximately every 7 years we get a new body as these cells are replaced by new cells.  Why not choose to focus on a healthier lifestyle and influence your genetic coding as to how well you will age?  All healthy and unhealthy habits interact with the epigenome, but it is the unhealthy habits which have the potential of telling it which disease genes to turn on.  Positively influencing your genetic code and the expression of genetic traits is as simple as developing healthy dietary and lifestyle habits which promote positive gene expression. This will decrease your risk of disease and increase your potential for longevity.