1. Dry Skin
Your skin can become dry for a number of reasons. Living in an arid environment naturally makes your skin drier, and your skin also dries out during the winter months. However, if you can't connect your dry skin with any environmental factors and if it doesn't clear up within a few months, your skin dryness may be a sign of premature aging.
Dry skin occurs when your skin has lower than normal oil levels, and your skin can also become dehydrated, which is a condition that occurs when your skin is low on water. When your skin is dry, it becomes itchy and red, and it may also flake off. In addition, dry skin increases the prominence of wrinkles.
The first thing that you should do once you notice that you have dry skin is to determine if any of your habits might be contributing to this problem. For instance, smoking is one of the leading causes of dry skin, and whether you smoke tobacco or cannabis, you should cut out these vices immediately if you are worried that your skin is too dry. Excessive alcohol consumption can also cause dry skin, and when you spend too much time in the sun, this habit can also make your skin become dry prematurely.
Even if you start to limit UV exposure after noting your dry skin, the damage may have already been done; the majority of UV damage to your skin happens during your first 20 years of life, so you'll need to take other measures to defeat your skin's dryness if it has already sustained significant UV damage.
One of the best ways to combat skin dryness is by changing your diet. A diet that's full of fresh, organic, and non-GMO foods will give your body the resources it needs to return moisture to your skin, and increased exercise can also improve your skin's overall health. From there, you can take advantage of the antioxidant effects of vitamin C to help your skin return to its natural and moist state.
Vitamin C fights back against the free radicals in your skin that spur the aging process, and it has also been shown to be capable of defending your skin from the effects of UV radiation. If you apply a safe and natural vitamin C serum to your face once per day, you may find that your dry skin will clear up in no time.
2. Sagging Skin
As you age, levels of elastin and collagen in your skin start to decrease. Collagen is a type of protein, and it is the most abundant kind of protein in the human body. In addition to helping your skin stay plump and firm, collagen is also present in cartilage and other body tissues, and your body needs this substance to stay young. One of the first signs of decreased collagen levels that you'll notice is sagging skin, and you can start to notice your skin sagging as early as your 20s and 30s.As is the case with other signs of aging, observing a healthy diet and wholesome habits can help restore your skin's collagen to its natural levels. In particular, getting lots of sleep can help your body make the collagen it needs to stay healthy, and it's also important to remove sources of stress in your life.
Some people take oral collagen supplements to help get their collagen levels back to normal. However, these supplements are usually made from animal products, which means that they are off limits to vegans. You can also use a variety of topical treatments to restore your skin's collagen, and facial serums and other similar products that contain phytonutrients from plants can give your skin a supercharge of nutrients to help it bounce back.
There are plenty of anti-wrinkle and anti-aging products on the market that include vitamin A as their primary active ingredient. Proponents of this vitamin have touted it as a natural and safe treatment for aging skin for decades, but vitamin A may actually be dangerous. Vitamin A reacts intensely to UV exposure, and it may cause cancer when you apply it topically. Scientists need to do more research on vitamin A before they decide conclusively whether or not it is dangerous, but there is definitely a significant controversy surrounding this substance.
Again, vitamin C comes to the fore as a safe and effective substance for returning your skin's collagen levels back to normal. This substance doesn't have any notable side-effects, and skin usually tolerates it well. When you apply a vitamin C serum directly to your face, it delivers this powerful antioxidant directly where it is needed most, and it gets to work right away at the process of returning plumpness and tightness to your skin.
3. Skin Dullness
Even if your skin had a bright, natural glow when you were younger, this glow will gradually dissipate as you age. As you age, the cells in your skin and in other parts of your body slow down their rates of reproduction, which means that the rate at which your skin makes new cells decreases. This decreased rate results in the top layer of your skin becoming less vibrant and alive as this part of your skin becomes more and more populated with dead or dying skin cells that aren't making way for new cells as fast as they once did.
Using exfoliants can sometimes improve your skin's glow, but there's only so much that you can accomplish with exfoliating products. However, vitamin C improves cell turnaround, which can improve your skin's health. You can use practically any substance that contains antioxidants to increase your skin's cell turnaround rate, and you can also improve your skin's glow by using facial products that contain hyaluronic acid. This substance is essential to your skin's health, and it helps your skin regain the moisture that it has lost in the aging process. Increased moisture means increased cell turnaround rate, so using a light and natural hyaluronic acid serum might be just the solution you need to get rid of your dull, dead, skin cells.
4. Yellow Teeth
While you might associate yellow teeth with smoking or with poor oral hygiene, there is another reason why your teeth might become yellow as you get older. Over time, the enamel on your teeth breaks down and thins. Enamel is naturally bright white, but the layer of tissue underneath it, called dentin, varies widely in terms of color.Some people's dentin is white like their enamel, but other people may have yellow or brown dentin. Therefore, as their enamel breaks down and becomes more transparent, the hue of the underlying dentin becomes more apparent. Your enamel will break down faster if you eat lots of acidic foods, and excessive consumption of sugar and alcohol also harms this protective tooth layer. In addition, if you have conditions like acid reflux disease, teeth grinding, or bulimia, your enamel may start breaking down while you're still quite young.
The prevailing wisdom is that tooth enamel cannot be regenerated after it is gone. However, some experts beg to differ on this opinion. For instance, Dr. Weston Price, the author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, found that you can regenerate tooth enamel can by following a revised diet. For instance, foods that are high in phytic acid, such as most grains, should be avoided, and you should incorporate vitamin K2 and nutrient-enriched cod liver oil if you want to restore your tooth enamel naturally. While the scientific community at large hasn't adopted these views, they may serve as a ray of hope for those who are suffering from decreased enamel levels.
5. Increased Belly Fat
As you get older, your body goes through a number of hormonal and metabolic changes. It starts processing nutrients more slowly and less effectively, and it starts storing fat in places that might have been quite slim in your younger years. In both men and women, increased fat deposits in the abdominal region often accompany the aging process.
In addition to hormonal reasons, increased stress can also cause you to gain more belly fat. There are a number of different ways that you can reduce stress, and one of the best stress-reducers also helps you fight fat directly: exercise. Whether you like going for a walk in the woods or taking a yoga class best, combining exercise with natural stress-reduction methods like meditation can help you beat the belly fat that is one of the earliest and most persistent signs of the aging process.
6. Alzheimers Disease
Incidence rates of Alzheimer's disease in middle-aged and elderly people continue to rise. While the increased prevalence of this disease is still largely without explanation, the onset of Alzheimer's is something that everyone of a certain age needs to look out for. Some early signs of the onset of this neurodegenerative disease include loss of hearing and loss of your sense of smell, and you can taking smell and hearing screens to determine if you have experienced any reduction in the acuity of these senses.In the past, it was relatively common to view degeneration of neural tissue as a one-way street; neuroscientists and physicians were absolutely convinced that neurons could not regenerate or reconnect once they were destroyed. However, recent revelations have flipped this common view on its face, and the scientific and medical communities now widely recognize that simple activities that keep your brain active and stave off conditions like Alzheimer's or heal them after their onset.
In addition, it appears that magnesium supplements can also help your brain repair itself. If you take 300 mg of magnesium per day, your Alzheimer's disease might go away, and you can also get magnesium into your system by taking Epsom salt baths.
7. Sore Feet
Walking is a part of life that most of us can't avoid, and the force of gravity on planet Earth shows no signs of letting up any time soon. Therefore, repeated stress to the bottoms of our feet is an inevitable part of the aging process, and if your feet start to feel sore as you get older, remember that this issue is only natural. It wouldn't be natural, however, to simply roll over and let sore feet get the best of you, and there are plenty of things that you can do to help your feet feel better.As you age, the muscles on the bottoms of your feet get thinner, and blood pools in the veins of your feet easily, which causes inflammation and swelling. Therefore, you should get out of your high heels while you can, and sore feet might also be a sign that it's time to put your ballet days behind you. Sneakers with thick cushions, however, are some of the best shoes that you can use to keep your feet inflammation-free.