Many people find it difficult to really love their body as they age, often reminiscing about how they used to look in earlier years. However, your body goes through so much during its lifetime, making it important that you recognize and respect each change that it goes through.
Loss of Height
Both men and women usually tend to lose some of their height as they age, usually due to osteoporosis, which is why your calcium intake throughout your life is so important. While loss of height tends to accelerate past the age of 70, women tend to begin losing height quite drastically in the first five years after menopause, with around one to three inches lost over their lifetime. This can often have quite the detrimental impact on an individual’s body image, but, rather than letting this get you down, try practicing a few yoga exercises that will help to improve your posture, as this will make you look taller and leaner.
Loss of Bone Density and Weaker Muscles
The loss of bone density, as well as the weakening of muscles, is extremely common as people age, especially if they live a sedentary lifestyle without any regular exercise. It goes without saying that exercise is the best way to counteract this, showing your body respect by helping to strengthen it back up. However, you do also need to be careful with the physical activity that you do, as too much wear and tear can cause inflammation within the joints, making them much less flexible.
Skin Changes
The skin experiences many changes with age, from the loss of elasticity to the onset of wrinkles and dark spots to a decline in the natural skin cell regeneration process. The skin’s oil production also declines with age, making dryness more common, and this only exacerbates any wrinkles and fine lines. In order to respect each of these changes, you need to commit to an anti-aging skin care routine, picking products and ingredients that are able to directly target your main skin concerns.
The Neurosensory System
The neurosensory system refers to everything from taste buds to sense of smell to hearing to vision, all of which begin to decline with age. In order to prevent this from happening, it is important to keep the mind as mentally active as possible, as studies have shown that a well-kept mind is much more likely to retain the majority of its functions. If you are already starting to experience these changes to your neurosensory system, it is not too late to reactivate your mind, helping it to return back to its normal state.
As people age, they often feel as though their bodies are beginning to fail them, without recognizing each of the different changes that are occurring. By understanding how the different systems within your body are affected by aging, you will be able to show your body the respect that it deserves by catering to each of these changes, and giving it what it really needs.
