Anti aging used to be an industry just targeting women. It was more of a beauty niche for those who wanted to look and feel great about themselves. Now, men make up a hefty portion of the anti aging industry, and manufacturers have responded with products just for their gender!
Anti Aging Skincare for Men
Wrinkles don’t just happen to women – men get them, too! And they’re no happier about seeing fine lines around the eyes and mouth than women are. But it’s not a wrinkle issue – skin becomes discolored and blotchy and it gets dry, making a man look much older than his years.
Men, just like women, need to watch their skincare regimen as they age. First, you want to start by feeding your skin from the inside out. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals so that your skin cells have a fighting chance.
Men generally have to shave their face, so this can be extra harsh on them. You have to maintain supple skin and soften it so that it remains hydrated and plump. There are many skincare products that you can get to complete a skincare regimen for men.
Washing your face is a must – whether you’re wearing a three-piece suit to the office or working outside in a labor-intensive job. We all have dead skin cells that need to be sloughed off.
Once in awhile you might also want to use an exfoliant. This doesn’t have to be a daily skincare routine, but it can be a few times a week. Cleanse and exfoliate so that you can then apply moisturizers that hydrate and plump up your skin.
When you moisturize your skin, make sure you use a separate eye cream and body cream from what you use on the rest of your face. The eye cream is for more delicate areas, and the face creams are more delicate than body creams.
You can get an anytime moisturizer or split your regimen up into a day and night routine, depending on how your habits are. Ideally, you’ll wash and moisturize twice a day.
In the morning, you’re washing off the dead cells that have appeared during the restoration process overnight. At night, you’re washing off the free radicals you’ve encountered during the day.
Make sure you choose the right skincare products for you based on whether or not you have sensitive skin. Choose items that are filled with SPF protection so that if you are outside, you get protection from the sun damage that makes you look older.
And choose Retinol as an ingredient in your nighttime skincare products so that it can help repair sun damage done throughout the day. If you apply it in the morning, it can make your skin more sensitive to the sun’s rays.
Testosterone Therapy for Men
As you age, men start to lose testosterone, which is an important hormone that keeps you youthful and energetic. Luckily, you can supplement that hormone to help restore some of your testosterone.
There are creams called natural androsome creams that help combat the loss of testosterone in your body. Some men see a loss before their 40s, but others begin a gradual decline around that age.
You’ll notice a wide range of symptoms, including:
* Sexual dysfunction
* Loss of bone mass
* Increased fatigue
* Depression
* Insomnia
* Memory loss…and more.
Testosterone is the main hormone that men have in their bodies. You want to be a viral man, not a man who is suffering from physical and mental weaknesses. Supplements can help you with this pursuit.
When you lose testosterone at too rapid of a rate, you become at higher risk for developing heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer and other ailments. When you begin supplementing your testosterone, you reduce those risks, and your blood pressure, clotting abilities, and cholesterol and triglycerides numbers all have a better chance at stabilizing and getting back to normal levels.
If you’ve noticed any signs of low testosterone, get your doctor to run a test so that you can get treatment as soon as possible. Symptoms include:
* Low interest in sex
* Balding
* Erectile dysfunction
* Low energy levels
* Less muscle mass, more fat
* Moodiness
Supplements for Energy and Vitality in Men
Aside from testosterone supplementation, one thing you want in your supplement regimen are antioxidants to protect your body against free radicals. Every day you encounter things that harm your inner and outer body – and you can’t even see this pollution.
You can start with a multi vitamin made specifically for men. They even have some for men over 50, so make sure you pick one that’s right for your age and gender and not a one size fits all.
You might want to talk to your doctor about adding an aspirin to your daily intake. This can help you avoid a problem that’s common to men as they age – heart disease. Aspirin will keep your blood flowing and work to prevent colon cancer. But it can also cause stomach issues, so let your doctor monitor your intake.
You might also want to get started on carnitneis. This is a supplement that helps you convert that beer belly into muscle. It does more than that, though. It helps reduce chest pain, assists you with memory retention, helps diabetics, reduces fatigue, and works as an anti depressant.
Fish oil is another supplement you want to make sure you’re taking. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil pills contribute to heart health. It lowers your triglycerides numbers and improves cholesterol.
Another thing that fish oil does is helps you retain proper eye health. This is something that typically worsens as we age. Fish oil helps with macular degeneration, but it also helps with glaucoma.
Some people suggest that men start taking an HGH (human growth hormone) when they begin aging faster than they’d like to. There is a debate brewing about this one, so you’ll need a doctor’s consultation before embracing it.
CoQ10 might be worth looking into as well. It helps with cellular functions, and that keeps you energetic and healthy as you age. It helps with so many body functions – but mainly heart disease.
Men’s Mental anti aging Regimen
As you age, your mental health starts to decline just as your physical health does. But it’s not inevitable. You can take steps to engage in an anti aging regimen that includes working on your mental capabilities.
The aging population suffers from many issues in the mental health category, including:
* Anxiety
* Depression
* Memory loss
* Panic attacks
Many people don’t receive the help they need because they consider it a normal part of the aging process. But although it’s common, it doesn’t have to be a part of your life.
Many of the mental problems stem from physical health woes – and vice versa. You can contribute to heart disease through added stress and anxiety, and being diagnosed with heart disease can cause increased stress and anxiety.
Make sure you maintain or re-ignite your socialization skills. Don’t allow yourself to become a hermit, cut off from the world and feeling sad and alone as you grow older.
The Washington Post reported that Baby Boomers are committing suicide at an alarming rate. As men age, they sometimes find themselves alone, mired in health issues and chained to mounting debt.
Sometimes the decision is made shortly after seeing a doctor and discovering a decline in health, so it’s important that you keep up with your health and talk to a licensed professional who can get you through situations where you might be scared and feeling hopeless.
You might notice that you start to feel more paranoid, have trouble sleeping, and you’re more stressed out. You need to learn how to engage in better sleep hygiene, how to implement stress reduction measures, and keep your mind sharp as a tack.
Practice honing your memory skills and cognitive function through playing games that assist you with this. There are memory games online or you can buy puzzles like Sudoku to help stimulate your brain function.
Sexual Issues Due to Aging
We mentioned carnitine earlier as one of the supplements you should take. Well it has another function – and that is to increase sperm count in men. This naturally declines over time as you age.
Other sexual dysfunctions you might encounter as you age are erectile dysfunction. Being unable to get an erection can be depressing, as well as humiliating for a man.
Sometimes it can take longer, and sometimes impotence – where you are completely unable to get an erection – occurs. By the time you reach 65, you might be one of the quarter of the male population who suffers from this.
It happens because of other physical issues such as diabetes, heart disease, or sometimes even the medication that you’re on. Sometimes you can get an erection, but it doesn’t last – or it’s too soft.
You might find that you’re suffering from a loss in your libido. You just have no interest in sex, and this can pose a problem if you’re in a committed relationship with someone.
If you’re on medication and you notice these problems arising, talk to your doctor about possibly switching your medicine to something different to see if it helps. If you’re not on medication, then you need to tell your doctor about the symptoms and see if he can possible help you find a solution.
No matter how old you are getting to be, you still want to practice safe sex. Recently, a report came out that told of the rise of sexually transmitted diseases among senior citizens – especially syphilis.
There are all sorts of solutions you can try for whatever sexual issues you’re having as you age. The “little blue pill” known as Viagra isn’t the only thing that works!
As a man, there are many anti aging tactics you can try to slow time and regain your youthful abilities. Not everything will work and your body won’t respond to every treatment.
The key is to keep trying different things until you find what works for you – and then be vigilant about your health so that your body can perform up to your standards.
Self Care Is Crucial in Slowing Down the Clock
The most important thing that you can do in the war against aging is to practice plenty of self-care. By taking care of yourself as a whole – physically, mentally, and emotionally – you can slow the aging process in all of those areas.
You want to especially be on the lookout for stress because stress ages you. Not only does stress age you on the inside because it can cause health related problems to crop up, but it ages you on the outside as well.
When you’re stressed, your body produces more cortisol. Too much cortisol damages the skin and makes it look far older than it actually is. Here are some self care ideas that can help you live a peaceful and relaxed life.
How Spirituality Can Help Fight Aging
Being spiritual isn’t necessarily linked with any religion, though it can be. Becoming spiritual simply means that you learn to release any negativity that keeps your feelings in turmoil.
This may be negativity associated with wrongs committed against you. Or it could be situations that didn’t work out and you still feel some lingering resentment. By letting go of those negative emotions, you free yourself.
By forgiving the things that have gone on in your life, you break the bond that links you emotionally to that situation. Changing how you feel and look at life inwardly can lead to positive changes in your health – and that includes giving you a younger looking appearance.
Peace, the kind of peace that can only be found in giving yourself the freedom you deserve, can give you relief from stress. It can also put you on the road to profound happiness that radiates from within.
In everyone, there is a link between the spirit, emotions and the body. When the spirit is free, the body can heal – as well as the emotions. Some people refer to this as a higher self or living on a higher plane of existence.
When you align your body with your higher self, you gain empowerment. You’re set loose to accept the grace, the peace and the happiness that can flow naturally to you and from within you.
You gain clarity and connection that enables you to put stress in its proper place in your life. You learn to see events, both good and bad, as things that can help you grow as a person.
Some people refer to this as mindfulness. It means that you make sure you remain in the present. You don’t spend time worrying about the future or what it might bring.
Instead, you concentrate on enjoying the here and now. This has also been referred to as keeping negativity at bay. Having a positive mental attitude can go a long way toward preventing aging – and attitude and spirituality go hand in hand.
How do you enhance your spirituality? First, it requires you to take time to be still and present. Don’t be in a place that’s loud and distracting. You can then use some form of mental clarity exercise like meditation to let go of negative thoughts and usher in more positive ones.
Even if you’re practicing a certain religion, you can often pick up spiritual tips that align with your own beliefs when you start investigating other religions and spiritual studies. Gaining wisdom is a cornerstone of increased spirituality.
Practice Affirmations to Wind Back the Clock
Some people in their seventies look and act decades younger. When you observe them, you can tell that they’re not just moving through life – they’re living it with gusto – and they’re enjoying every second of it.
This is because people like that practice the belief that being young is all in the mind. It’s how you perceive life. What you think and believe really does have an impact on your appearance and on how you feel.
If you think that you’re old, you’ll begin to act that way and move that way. That’s why you’ll see some people in their fifties that shuffle around like they’re over a hundred years old.
When we were children, we couldn’t wait to grow older and really start living our lives. But when we’re older, we want to be young again. Many people lament that the years of their youth are now gone.
But you can fight aging both mentally and physically. The key is found in positive affirmations. By utilizing the practice of positive affirmations, you can give yourself the same things that kept you young as a child.
Remember how the world was one big place just waiting to be explored? You can have that same enthusiasm for life and that same belief that life is good. Affirmations can help you fight aging because they give stress the boot and free you from the anxiety that can age you.
You can regain the joy that you had in your childhood and literally set yourself free emotionally from aging. There are tons of tools that you can buy that can guide you to learning anti-aging affirmations.
But you can also create some of your own. Affirmations mean to affirm, to encourage or to declare. So keep that in mind if you choose to write your affirmations.
You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel once you put this into practice. Some examples of positive affirmations that you can use are, “Every day I look and feel younger” and “My body is full of energy and health.”
It’s not so much what you say but that the words you use are positive and affirm your anti-aging belief. You want to practice saying your affirmations or listening to the recordings of them every day.
You’ll find these recordings listed under categories like hypnosis for anti-aging or rejuvenation. Whatever affirmations you decide to use, make sure that you say them clearly and that you say them out loud.
Saying them out loud helps reaffirm what you’re saying. During the time that you’re doing the exercise, if any negative thoughts come to mind, push them aside. Affirmations reach your subconscious mind to stimulate it and give you mental changes that are positive in nature.
Get Stress Relief to Feel Good About Life
There is too much medical evidence proving that stress ages the body in all kinds of ways. In fact, stress can do such a number on you that it can easily make you feel twice the age that you actually are.
Stress is going to happen, but it doesn’t have to take over your life. In fact, stress doesn’t have to steal any of your time except a passing glance – if that. There really is a way to live with relatively little stress and experience peace and calm.
What you want to do first is to identify any stress triggers. Get those addressed right away. For example, if handling your finances stresses you out, delegate the task to a trusted relative.
Whatever you don’t have to deal with that stresses you, just don’t. It’s a matter of letting go of what doesn’t really matter in the long run. And make sure that you don’t become the dumping ground for someone else’s stress.
Your own stress – plus handling someone else’s stress – is an anti-aging buster. Affirmations like we mentioned earlier help with stress and anti-aging too. Guided imagery is another way to de-stress your life.
This is a practice that leads you into a state of relaxation. It’s a great way to practice stress therapy that can free you from the toll that stress can take on the body.
Meditation is also helpful when you need to get rid of stress. There are a lot of different types of meditation that you can get involved with. Some have a spiritual base, but some don’t.
What some people do is to use a specific method such as yoga that also has a mantra that’s used with the meditation. There are forms of meditation that teach users how to perform deep breathing exercises and this is a good way to get relief from stress very quickly.
Keeping a journal is a way to get stress relief, too. Keeping a journal where you can write about your feelings helps to release any pent-up emotions. You can do what some psychologists suggest and keep a gratitude journal. By keeping a journal of all of the things that you’re grateful about, you’re introducing the positive.
This helps fight stress because there’s a strong connecting between stress and negative events and negative emotions. Make sure there’s plenty of laughter in your life.
Laughing is good medicine that can give you stress relief and it’s good for your body in other ways, too. You can watch funny movies or listen to funny songs. Some people find that watching videos of babies laughing is enough to make them laugh, too – and it can be short snippets like the viral videos on YouTube.
Take a hike. Getting out of the house and going for a regular walk helps relax your body and release endorphins. It can calm the mind – and breathing in the fresh air releases stress.
Find a hobby that you really enjoy. Maybe you had something that you really enjoyed doing when you were younger, but you gave it up. You can get right back into doing it.
Many hobbies relieve stress because doing something that you enjoy, something that gives you pleasure, makes you feel good about yourself and makes you feel happy.
Socializing Makes You Younger
Having friends or groups of people that you regularly spend time with can help keep you younger. When you’re around other people, you have someone that you can share ideas with.
You also gain a sense of belonging and there’s someone to talk to if you need someone to listen. By socializing, you’ll spend time with people that can walk through life with you.
Having common ground can also help because you know that someone else understands what you’re experiencing. When you socialize, you stay more active and by being active, that helps with stress relief as well as anti-aging.
Engaging in social activities with others helps you have a positive mental attitude – and that can have a good impact on your health. Socializing also keeps your stress hormone lower.
It helps with your cognitive skills by keeping your brain active. A lot of people have plenty of friends, but would like more. Some people are looking to connect with more people to build a bigger social circle.
You can find ways to connect and grow your social circle by engaging in activities where you can meet people that have similar interests. For example, if you’re really into cooking and you’d like to learn how to make gourmet foods, you can take a cooking class.
There, you’ll meet people who have the same interests that you do. You can also get involved at the community center where you live. A community center often has a lot of opportunities.
There can be classes on painting or guitar lessons. You can find people teaching classes on playing the piano or learning how to do CPR. If you have special skills that can benefit others, you can even sign up to teach a class at a community center and broaden your social circle that way.
Some people choose to get involved in activities such as coaching children’s sports team. Socialization boosts your immune system. Some people mistakenly think that being around a lot of other people can lead to getting more germs that lead to illnesses.
But being around a lot of other people actually helps you remain healthy. You’ll also find that the more that you socialize, the more sleep you’re able to get when you go to bed.
This goes back to the fact that socialization helps you feel good and is good for relieving stress. Spending time with others not only helps fight anti-aging, it also promotes longevity.
Volunteering Is an Anti-Aging Tool
Volunteering has many positive benefits for your mind and your body. It can keep you feeling connected with others, especially if you once had an active social life and for some reason, you don’t now.
Volunteering can help ward off depression if you’re feeling lonely. For many people, being stuck in social isolation is a key trigger for depression. This is especially true for anyone that’s lost a long-term spouse.
By volunteering regularly, you’ll feel a greater sense of community. You’ll notice health benefits when you volunteer. By spending time giving to others, it raises your sense of well-being.
Noticing a decrease in chronic pain is something that many people who volunteer notice. Plus, staying active through volunteer work gives you a routine – and that’s something that benefits you at any age.
When you give back to your community, you’ll feel happier. The reason for this is because feeling good gives you a serotonin boost. Not only will you feel better physically, but you’ll feel better about yourself.
Volunteering can give you a higher level of self-confidence. Another benefit of volunteering is gaining new skills. Some people like to volunteer at hospitals and will take a CPR class before they get started.
Other volunteers might work in the gift shop of a hospital or volunteer at a school to help children who need some extra tutoring. There are all sorts of community programs and nonprofit organizations looking for people to act as volunteers. You could help a lot of people as well as yourself by becoming a volunteer.
The Anti-Aging Benefits of Having a Pet
People who own pets gain a lot of health benefits. Having a pet can alleviate stress, keep your blood pressure at healthy levels and stimulate your cognitive skills.
Pets can have a calming effect on people and this helps those who own an animal to feel less stressed and enjoy peace. Studies have shown that people who have a pet don’t have as much stress as people who don’t have one.
Pets are great companions, too. They can help people deal with negative emotions. They offer unwavering loyalty and support. Plus, pets help boost the activity level in people who have a pet.
Exercise can become a daily routine when you have a dog, for example. Those who own pets often find that they enjoy being outdoors more than they did before they got a pet.
Having a pet can also broaden your social circle. You can meet people at the dog park or at the vet’s office and wherever you take your dog in to be groomed – even the pet store where you’re often allowed to bring your four-legged friend inside.
Animals can also be great deterrents against the emotional impact that some people struggle with as they do get older. Some people discover that as they age, they begin to experience feelings of loneliness or depression.
Sometimes, grief can come into play. Having a pet can help a person have something that fills a lonely void in their lives. For those who once had a busy life that revolved around children’s activities and shuttling them back and forth, having a pet can give them back a sense of purpose.
It helps to have something to take care of in a way that’s not burdensome. Before you get a pet, you might want to consider adopting an older animal who no longer has a family.
When you’re aging, you may not want a spry little puppy to keep up with, but a gentle, older companion who would sit on your lap and follow you around the house just perfect.
Self care routines aren’t just one task that you add to your daily to do list. It’s a way of life that requires you to put yourself first. Maybe you’ve heard airline workers talk about the importance of putting your oxygen mask on first so that you can then take care of those around you.
Life works in much the same way. Your friends, family and loved ones need you to take care of and love yourself so that you can be a good friend and loved one to them.
Make sure you nurture yourself each and every day. Don’t neglect your self care – whether that’s finding time to meditate or making plans to go out and have brunch with a good friend – it will help reverse the aging process by keeping you youthful mentally – and physically!