Some signs of aging can be seen from the outside: Your hair turns gray, and wrinkles and age spots appear on your skin. Our bodies are less able to store fluid in older age, so our spinal discs shrink and lose elasticity, for instance. As a result, people get smaller as they grow older.
After age 30, people tend to lose lean tissue. Your muscles, liver, kidney, and other organs may lose some of their cells. This process of muscle loss is called atrophy. Bones may lose some of their minerals and become less dense (a condition called osteopenia in the early stages and osteoporosis in the later stages).
Dementia and aging
Dementia is not a normal part of aging. It includes the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, learning, and reasoning — and behavioral abilities to the extent that it interferes with a person's quality of life and activities.
The biggest changes typically occur when people are in their 40s and 50s, but they can begin as early as the mid-30s and continue into old age. Even when your muscles are in top working order, they contribute to facial aging with repetitive motions that etch lines in your skin.
Smoking, excessive drinking, and lack of sleep can contribute to a more aged appearance by causing premature wrinkling and brown spots on your skin. Some medications speed up the aging process by depleting your body of essential vitamins or minerals it needs to produce collagen and elastin efficiently.
Your Bones, Joints, and Muscles
Your muscles get weaker, and the tendons -- which connect muscles to your skeleton -- get stiffer. This will decrease your strength and flexibility. In your 70s, you might lose an inch or two off your height as disks in your back flatten.
Exercise is one of the best ways to delay aging. And with good reason: too much time sitting (sedentary behavior) is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and an early death. Aerobic activity is any activity that causes you to breathe harder than normal and your heart to beat faster.
“Retinol and alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) can rejuvenate the skin and eliminate fine lines and wrinkles,” Dr. Patel says. “Hyaluronic acid helps your skin retain moisture, which gives it a smooth, glowing look.” Opt for serums and night creams with retinol and AHAs, and a daily face moisturizer with hyaluronic acid.
They're the result of facial muscles continually tugging on, and eventually creasing, the skin. Other folds may get deeper because of the way fat decreases and moves around. Finer wrinkles are due to sun damage, smoking, and natural degeneration of elements of the skin that keep it thick and supple.
Incorporate foods high in vitamin C like citrus fruits, which studies have shown may promote younger looking skin. Have food high in essential fatty acids, such as walnuts or olive oil, to keep skin cells hydrated. Avoid food high in unhealthy fats, which could make your skin appear less youthful.
For Caucasian women, it's typically around the late 30s. "This is when fine lines on the forehead and around the eyes, less-elastic skin, and brown spots and broken capillaries from accumulated sun damage crop up," says Yagoda. If you're a woman of color, the tipping point is more likely in your 40s.
Skin changes are among the most visible signs of aging. Evidence of increasing age includes wrinkles and sagging skin. Whitening or graying of the hair is another obvious sign of aging.
Common conditions in older age include hearing loss, cataracts and refractive errors, back and neck pain and osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, depression and dementia.
Regular exercise helps people age more slowly and live healthier, more vigorous lives. And it also helps people live longer. Calculations based on the Harvard Alumni Study suggest that men who exercise regularly can gain about two hours of life expectancy for each hour of exercise.
After examining data from more than 5,800 adults ages 20-84, a Brigham Young University exercise science professor discovered that adults who ran a minimum of 30-40 minutes, five days a week, had an almost nine-year “biological aging advantage.” That advantage is tied to something called telomeres.
Extreme workouts can result in fat loss throughout the body as well as the face. This subsequent decrease in facial fat and volume is one of the main reasons why exercise makes you look older, especially for anyone over the age of 35.