Fight Wrinkles With Exercise

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Research has shown that exercise can delay (and even reverse!) the signs of aging. A study conducted by McMaster University revealed that sedentary lifestyles contribute to balding, grey hair, saggy skin, and wrinkles.

Researchers used mice for the first portion of their experiment. The rodents were split into two groups: one group had an exercise wheel and the other did not. Results revealed that the sedentary mice quickly became frail and ill. Their fur also began to grey and fall out.

Meanwhile, the mice that exercised never got grey fur at all. Although their fur did fall out, it was in much smaller percentages than in the sedentary group. But most importantly, the active mice maintained healthy organs.

After examining the results of the study, the researchers decided to see if the same results would occur with people. Again, two groups: one group exercised for three sessions a week, the other didn’t exercise at all. Participants ranged in age from 20 to 84.

Researchers found that those who exercised had dramatically better skin. But researchers also acknowledge the fact that some of the differences could be attributed to diet, genes, environmental factors, and other lifestyle choices.

The only true way to examine the effect then, would be to take the sedentary group and have them start exercising. So that's what researchers did. After just three months, researchers found improvement in the tone, appearance, and texture of their skin.

Scientists still haven't pinpointed an exact reason as to why exercise makes for young-looking skin. Some researchers theorize it’s because of the increased blood circulation. Others believe it’s because exercise relieves stress, which can be a major contributor to skin problems. And yet others think it’s because exercise helps the body get rid of toxins. Either way, there’s substantial evidence that points to the fact that exercise gives people a more youthful, radiant glow.

More Coffee Could Mean a Longer Life

Coffee is warm, delicious, and perfectly healthy to enjoy.

Happy Monday! Good news for coffee drinkers: the most recent studies suggest that drinking coffee can actually reduce the risk of premature death. Researchers collected data from 200,000 women and 50,000 men about their diets and coffee consumption, and the statistics suggest that people who drank less than three cups of coffee per day had between a 5% and 9% lower risk of dying prematurely than those who drank no coffee.

One to three cups reduced risk by 8% and three to five cups saw a 15% decrease in risk of death. Drinking coffee was linked to reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neurological disease, and even suicide—but only for people who also did not smoke.  When they began the study, researchers didn’t see an apparent connection between drinking coffee and dying prematurely. But when they only looked at participants who said that they did not smoke, that relationship became clearer, and the percentage of early-death risk was significantly lower.

Ming Ding, a doctoral student at Harvard who worked on the study, suggested that the “lower risk of mortality is consistent with our hypothesis that coffee consumption could be good for you because we have published papers showing that coffee consumption is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.” Of course, this study likely studied coffee that was either black or taken with milk—sorry, those delicious, seasonal Starbucks lattes still aren’t good for you!

The study does point to an interesting correlation, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other factors to consider. It’s possible that people who drink more coffee lead healthy lives in other areas—more exercise, less soda, even though coffee drinkers are more likely to drink alcohol and eat red meat. But coffee’s ingredients could be helping, too: chemicals like lignans and chlorogenic acid can help reduce inflammation and control blood sugar.

So for now, it seems like drinking coffee is a good thing for your health—cheers to that!

Foods for Bone Health Change with Age

Healthy bones are good bones!

You probably already knew that eating well, and chowing down on calcium, are not only good for bones, they’re necessary for aging comfortably. But did you know that your bones actually have different needs as you get older? A new scientific review published in the medical journal Osteoporosis International suggests that a change in diet as you age may be the best way to keep your bones strong and healthy.

The review suggests that as we get older, we need to focus on getting more and more protein, vitamin D, and calcium into our diets through the food we eat. And keeping our bones healthy doesn’t just affect us, it affects our children before they’re even born. The better the bone health of the mother, the better the bone health of her baby will be!

Most adults don’t get the amount of calcium recommended to them by national guidelines. Conditions for your bones are made worse by excessive drinking, smoking, or being very under- or overweight. So make sure you’re getting the right amount of good nutrients (dark leafy greens, cheese, tofu, and oatmeal are good sources of calcium) to prevent bone loss or the onset of osteoporosis. Calcium supplements can help, too, but if you find they upset your stomach, take them at mealtime.

As you get older, you will need to consume more things like those listed above. We want to prevent bone loss and promote good health early rather than have to work hard to try and slow the onset of problems. The review proposes dietary changes depending on where you are in life: for young people, diet should promote peak bone mass as good as it can be; for adults, the goal is to avoid premature bone loss to maintain a healthy skeleton; and for the elderly, the review outlines prevention and treatment for osteoporosis.

Now, go eat some cheese!