5 Ways to Prevent a Breakdown

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.