Sandra Prior

5 Ways to Prevent a Breakdown

5 Simple steps now can prevent your body breaking down early and give you years of added health and mental acuity.

1. Protect your Brain

Everyone loses brain volume as they age, but the stress hormone cortisol speeds the decline. Help your mind unwind with a house plant: simply being in the presence of plants can stem stress. Buy a spider plant or a snake plant; both are difficult to neglect to death.

2. Shield your Heart

Old-man arteries are stiff with age, inhibiting blood flow and increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Supplementing with 500mg of vitamin C daily significantly improves arterial flexibility. Spike your morning OJ with juice made from blackcurrants, which offer 200mg of vitamin C per 100g of berries-that's four times more than the puny 50g found in every 100g of oranges.

3. Save your Face

Do your face a favor and commit to sleeping eight hours a night. While you're asleep, your body produces collagen and elastin, two proteins that help your skin stay smooth. One note: Turkish researchers report that stomach sleepers can develop facial wrinkles due to years of friction between bedding and skin. Time to roll over.

4. Preserve your Vision

We won't sugar-coat it: refined carbohydrates can raise your risk of age-related macular degeneration by 49 percent. When the sugar load exceeds a cell's ability to use it, proteins in the eyes become damaged.

5. Guard your Hearing

To dodge deafness, start scrambling eggs. Yolks are a top source of phosphatidylcholine, a key component of the cell membranes in your ears. In a study by the Henry Ford Health System in the US, rats fed this fatty acid were protected from age-induced hearing loss.

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