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Smoking, Drinking, Food and More Causes of Aging

By: Brian Z. Barrett

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Many older people put those feelings of fatigue and their memory loss down to old age, but in some cases it can be due to a thyroid problem. Hypothyroidism, or under active thyroid is believed to affect a great many women who go undiagnosed due to having few, or minor, symptoms. These can also include dry skin, moodiness and insomnia.

The thyroid is a gland at the base of the neck that is shaped like a small butterfly. It produces hormones that regulate body temperature and do a great many other good things to our bodies. In many cases, the lack of these things has been confused with the symptoms of menopause, since the main age for thyroid-problems to begin seems to be similar to that of menopause or perimenopause - that is, the time leading up menopause.

The hormonal changes that occur during perimenopause often exacerbate the symptoms of hypothyroidism. Since many women put their symptoms down to menopause, they go largely untreated for their hypothyroidism. Traditionally, (in fact, as late as 1996) it was believed that this did not matter, as treatment was unnecessary if the symptoms were few and didn?t impact on quality of life. This belief was based on the fact that when treatment was given, it did not significantly alter the serum lipid parameters or alter the quality of life.

Experts tell us that smoking and drinking alcohol are two of the main causes of aging. Smoking causes our skin to become dry and wrinkled, while diseases of the lung like cancer and emphysema are well known. If you smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day for 10 or more years, it causes biochemical changes in the body, causing the skin to age and become leathery and wrinkled.

Alcohol damages the blood vessels and causes untold damage to the liver, not to mention having other negative impacts on our lifestyle.

You wouldn?t think food could cause aging, but eating the wrong kind of food all the time will fill our bodies with harmful free radicals and deprive them of the antidote - those all-important antioxidants. Fast foods will clog up our arteries with harmful fats and cause obesity. Even our children, who should be the healthiest people around, suffer from obesity. It causes them to become lethargic and unwilling to exercise, which compounds the problem.

Heredity does seem to have a part to play in aging. We often see members of one family suffer from the same degenerative diseases that cause them to age faster than others. But is this truly caused by genetics, or is lifestyle the main culprit? Usually members of the same family eat similar foods and exercise - or not - in a similar manner.

For instance if the parents are into sports and healthy eating, their children will seldom be obese or fast-food eaters. Or one person in a family may become ill and even die from eating, smoking or drinking the wrong things, while a sibling may prevent the same thing happening by sticking to a healthy diet and getting plenty of exercise.

Lack of exercise is said to be one of the most important factors in aging. Exercise can keep you fit, strong and healthy - partly because sweat drains the toxins from your body, thus assisting kidney and liver function. It also keeps muscles, ligaments and tendons flexible and in good shape.

Over-work especially, combined with a poor diet can also cause aging as we have seen in the past, with women who did a man?s task on the farm or in logging communities while still bearing children and doing other housework. They seldom reached a ripe old age, especially if their diets lacked the proper nutrition. Even harsh weather conditions can lead to aging as the body battles to keep us warm.

Excessive exposure to the sun?s rays can also cause our skin to age quickly and wrinkles to form, while some diseases like Down?s syndrome causes premature aging.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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