Health and Well-Being
Six Reasons I Feel Younger and Healthier as I Get Older.
I compare what I used to do wrong and what I do now differently from lifestyle perspectives.
Purpose of the Article
Understanding the importance of psychosomatic, my approach to health is holistic and preventative. Learning about the importance of lifestyle in improving health has been a game-changer for me.
This article aims to pass along my tacit knowledge so the new generation can leverage these hard lessons from my experimentation and studies as principles.
If read with an open mind, this piece might save time in designing lifestyle choices as a physical and mental model.
I have no intention of bragging about my age and good feelings. Instead, my goal is to inspire the reader and show them possibilities to gain insights from my findings and personalize relevant points for their health improvement.
Here are the six reasons I feel more youthful and healthier as I get older.
1 — Cellular, Mitochondrial, and Genetic Health
My lack of knowledge of cells in my younger years prevented me from applying healthy lifestyle habits to improve cellular health.
My perspective and approaches significantly changed when I learned that our health starts at a cellular level and that mitochondria and genes are critical for cells’ survival.
Cells need nutrition and energy to survive. But, like other organisms, they need movement and rest too.
Micronutrients like minerals and vitamins are critical. However, macronutrients like fats, proteins, and carbs are also necessary to give the required energy and building blocks for cell growth and maintenance.
Focusing on micronutrients, I prevented nutritional deficiencies. However, my approach to macronutrients is different from than conventional approach for personal reasons.
Proteins and some fats are essential, but carbs are not. Therefore, I focussed on the essential ones. Then, as fats provided better cellular and metabolic support, I replaced carbs with healthy fats. In addition, I skipped meals and finally practiced a one-meal-a-day eating regimen.
These strategies became a game-changer for my cellular health.
As mitochondria power cells, I paid particular attention to making them healthier with lifestyle choices. I wrote an article to make mitochondria denser: 12 Tips to Get Denser Mitochondria for Joyful Energy.
Improving the defense system and self-healing mechanisms with lifestyle habits significantly contributed to my cellular health.
In addition, I paid particular attention to the lymphatic system to remove toxins and pathogens from the cells. For example, a trampoline is an excellent tool for activating the lymphatic system.
Last but not least, our genes play a critical role in health and lifespan. For example, chronic stress and even micro stressors adversely affect our DNA.
I explained this less-spoken truth in an article titled Stress Affects Our Genes, but We Can Make Epigenetic Changes to Improve Them with Lifestyle Habits.
In my opinion, understanding our genes is not a luxury anymore.
2 — Metabolic Health
The term metabolic health was not in my vocabulary in my younger years. Therefore, I did not know how to improve my physical health.
By reviewing the body of knowledge and observing the behavior of successful people, I gained a holistic approach to my metabolic health. The journey was not straightforward. I had to try and make errors.
The key enabler to excellent metabolic health through experimentation is making my body fat-adapted. Just a simple switch from a sugar-burning to fat-burning metabolism made a ripple effect.
Fat-adaption was like a secret key to metabolic health. This approach made my body insulin sensitive and leptin receptive, balancing other key hormones like cortisol, growth hormone, and sex hormones.
As I wrote a detailed article about gaining a fat-adapted body, I will not repeat the details here. However, I provide the key points.
I gained a fat-adapted body helping me lose visceral fat and gain lean muscles with three strategies.
The first is adjusting macro-nutrients, significantly increasing healthy fats and bioavailable proteins via a keto-carnivore diet. People practicing plant-based diets might use the keto-vegan approach to gain metabolic benefits from ketosis.
The second point is optimizing metabolic hormones. And the third approach is leveraging time-restricted eating to enter deep ketosis.
Interested readers might find the details in this article titled Become Fat-Adapted and Trim Waistline in Three Steps.
3 — Mental Health
In my younger years, I suffered from mental health disorders such as mild depression, brain fog, anxiety, loneliness, and even anhedonia. The primary causes were chronic stress, chronic inflammation, and nutritional deficiencies.
Dealing with my thoughts and emotions gave me valuable insights into improving my mental health with lifestyle interventions. By enhancing my cognitive flexibility, I learned to regulate my emotions.
As metabolic health is tightly coupled with mental health, I first gained a competitive advantage by improving my metabolism. Speeding up metabolic health empowers the brain.
Studying cognitive science contributed to my research and understanding of mental health issues. Focusing on the neocortex and ancient brain gave me clues on the root causes of mental disorders.
I found practical ways to nourish neurotransmitters with healthy lifestyle habits like personalized nutrition, restorative sleep, customized workouts, regular meditation, rest, fun, therapeutic writing, working in a flow state, and self-talk.
My protocols helped me improve neurogenesis. For example, using lifestyle habits, I increased BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), making the brain more functional and preventing mental health disorders.
The critical success factor was going into ketosis and providing the brain with alternative energy while reducing unnecessary inflammation.
I have written hundreds of articles on mental health over the years. I link only a few of the popular ones to give a perspective on my empirical and experimental approach for new readers.
Become Less Prone to Neurodegenerative Disorders with Five Tips.
The Secret: Leverage RAS to Accomplish Dreams with Less Effort
4 — Hormonal and Neurotransmitter Balance
In my younger years, I did not know the importance of hormones and neurotransmitters for our cellular, metabolic, and mental health. Understanding the mystical language of hormones gave me valuable insights.
At a basic level, in addition to physical changes in the body, hormones can change our mood. Balanced hormones can make us feel good. Imbalanced hormones give us unpleasant feelings. Pain and pleasure are the high levels of indicators of hormones.
Our relationships also affect hormones and neurotransmitters. Emotional stress can adversely impact hormones and cause imbalances. For example, suppressed emotions can disrupt the activities of some hormones and cause DNA damage.
The critical change for me was balancing my hormones. Learning about the master hormones like insulin and cortisol impacted my physical and mental health the most.
In addition, I paid attention to my sex hormones like testosterone and learned practical ways to increase my growth hormone. Time-restricted eating, intense exercise, and restorative sleep were the key enablers.
I found six ways to enhance my hormonal intelligence. As I wrote an article about it, I only provided the key points here.
1 — Customize nutrition based on bodily needs.
2 — Personalize workouts.
3 — Create a rock-solid sleep regimen.
4 — Be mindful and meditate daily.
5 — Have meaningful connections.
6 — Get hormones checked regularly.
Here is the link to the article for details of these critical points: Hormonal Intelligence: Sharpen It to Achieve Optimal Health
I noticed that my hormones were imbalanced when I felt discomfort, pain, emotional disturbance, and mood fluctuations. Thus, I sought support from endocrinologists.
Medical tests for various hormones provided tangible indications of hormonal imbalance. This knowledge empowered me to balance my hormones with healthy lifestyle habits.
5 — A Disease Risk Reduction Approach
In my younger years, I had no idea about the risks of major diseases. However, I learned to reduce the risk of major diseases using an experimental approach empowered by observations and literature reviews.
Many diseases have common risk factors.
For example, obesity, metabolic syndrome, sedentary life, sleep deprivation, chronic stress, and chronic inflammation are root causes of major diseases such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases, causing millions of deaths annually.
As I wrote many articles about disease risk reduction as a broad topic, it is impossible to cover them here. Therefore, interested readers might check out the relevant ones from the following links.
Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Reduce the Risks of Neonatal Disorders to Prevent Infant Mortality.
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About it
What Can We Do About NCDs Killing 41 Million People Yearly?.
6 — Self-Healing Mechanisms
I had no idea of the body’s self-healing system in my younger years. Instead, my focus was external such as medication, to address my chronic conditions.
I use three approaches to activate the self-healing process of the body and mind. I wrote a comprehensive article titled Activate Self-Healing with Self-Love.
As I wrote many articles related to these topics, I only mentioned vital points and linked relevant articles for those interested in details. Here is a summary of these three major points.
A— Autophagy
Autophagy is the self-healing process in specific systems in the body. The body uses the autophagy process by consuming useless cells, damaged proteins, pathogens, and bacterial toxins as an energy source.
The process leads to self-healing at the cellular level. Therefore, autophagy contributed to my cellular, metabolic, mental, immune, and skin health.
The process is initiated with energy deficiency in the body. So, I used three fundamental mechanisms to create a balanced deficit without causing starvation. They are time-restricted eating, a ketogenic diet, and intense exercise.
Interested readers can find the details in this article titled Here Is What Happened When I Experimentally Initiated Autophagy Decades Ago.
B — Thermogenesis
One of my mistakes in my younger years was seeing cold and heat as enemies. I had no idea they could improve my health if used properly.
The literature on thermogenesis was fragmented, but there was significant evidence of its value for physical and mental health. Thus, I investigated it intensely and experimented sensibly.
I documented my decades of experience in a summary form by posting an article titled Here Is What Happened When I Experimented with Thermogenesis for Decades.
C — Homeostasis
The body and brain regulate all biological and psychological activities. As a result, our health depends on a delicate balance using homeostasis.
Homeostasis is a critical self-regulating process to maintain internal stability by adjusting to external conditions. Homeostatic regulation involves a complex interaction of multiple feedback systems to keep our cells and organs well-functioning.
We have many disrupting activities in the body. For example, cooling and heating are tightly regulated when disrupted. Hormones and neurotransmitters are also balanced via homeostatic regulation.
For example, even though the body and brain need sugar and dopamine to function, too much glucose and dopamine are perceived as harmful. Thus, the body and brain regulate them tightly. I mentioned them in the following two articles.
Awareness of Punishment Pathways in the Brain for Mental Health.
Sugar Paradox: Key to Solve Metabolic and Mental Health Disorders
I introduced homeostatic regulation with simple terms in an article titled Health Is All About Homeostasis.
Conclusions and Takeaways
In my decades of experience, the best approach to health is holistic and preventative. Understanding the body and mind connection and making necessary lifestyle changes is critical to having a healthy and happy life.
I provided highlights from my health and well-being journey by giving some examples. The critical difference between my unhealthy and healthy self was awareness of fundamental mechanisms with a holistic approach to health.
Age plays a role in health and lifespan. However, paradoxically, I felt tired, unhappy, and older in my younger years. The critical point is a young age cannot protect us from the risks of diseases without having a healthy lifestyle. I know people die from significant diseases at very young ages.
My metabolic and mental health was disastrous in my younger years when I did not know how to approach my health. However, as I got older, I fixed the problems by taking personal responsibility, making me healthier and more youthful.
The five steps in this post are not prescriptive but serve as a model to customize our solutions. While processes and procedures might differ for each person, principles don’t change.
I explained the importance of principles in a recent article titled Here’s How I Revved Fat Burning with 7 Lifestyle Habits and Customizable Principles.
While knowledge is power, action is critical for success. Therefore, the best impact on my health and fitness journey was experimenting sensibly, bravely, and gradually leveraging knowledge.
Learning from the successes and failures of others also improved my experience. This knowledge saved me time. I model the behaviors of centenarians, customizing them for my needs.
In addition to fundamentals, I also paid attention to my hobbies and profession, giving me more freedom.
More importantly, gaining self-love and self-compassion made me feel more youthful. This point highlights the importance of psychosomatic health.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
I wrote numerous articles about the brain and cognitive function that might inform and inspire you. I also wrote about topics like significant health conditions, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, humor, and content development.
I contribute to multiple publications but keep my health and wellness stories on EUPHORIA. My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
To get my post in your inbox, you may subscribe to my content. If you are a writer, you are welcome to join my publications as a writer by sending a request via this link. I support 25K+ writers who contribute to my publications on this platform.