3 Stress That Make You Look 10 Years Younger

The body enjoys doing hard things.

Stress challenges the cells to adapt and become more resilient. During stressful times, your body prioritise long-term survival over immediate growth. Cells become more efficient with resources. Energy gets directed from growth to repair. Which creates a resilient body and mind.

By adding good stress to your daily routine, you will increase your energy level and slow down aging.

Here are the 3 stressors.

Building muscle fights aging inside and out

Exercise is the body's natural anti-aging elixir.

Exercise, in particular, resistance workout, stimulate muscle growth. Strong muscles help maintain tight, youthful-looking skin. This becomes crucial as you age. You lose roughly 7% of muscle mass per decade starting in your 30s - a process that accelerates with age. The same is true for collagen. Collagen fibers are like the foundation of a house. Providing support to your posture and skin elasticity. Regular strength exercise helps preserve a healthy level of muscle mass and collagen.

During an intense workout, your body turns more oxygen into energy. But there aren’t enough mitochondria to do the work. Mitochondria are the cells' tiny power plants that power the body. To solve this problem, your cells build more mitochondria. Making the same workout feels easier next time. Regular exercise not only boosts your daily energy but also a restful sleep.

Exercise makes you tired and tells you it's time to sleep. During sleep, your brain removes waste, helping you to think well, stay focused, and learn faster.

Autophagy is your body’s natural cellular cleanup system

Fasting is like a military drill for the cells. It isn’t fun. But it toughens up your body.

When you stop eating, nutrients get depleted. Your body doesn’t know when is the next meal. And it doesn’t have work either, like digesting foods. So as a safety precaution, your body uses this downtime for repair and maintenance. It repairs damaged cells. Recycles old mitochondria. Breaks down damaged proteins. Convert them into nutrients for cellular repair. Recycling these old cell parts is a way to solve the nutrient shortage. It is also a way to slow down aging.

Waste creates pollution, and dead cells create chronic inflammation. These inflammation damages neighbouring healthy tissues. Causing more damaged cells like wildfire spreading across a forest. Autophagy is like a controlled burn to avoid uncontrolled wildfires. And no organs are more vulnerable to inflammation than the brain.

The brain uses 20% oxygen despite being only 2% body weight. Like a car that produces exhaust, thoughts, and emotions produce oxidative stress. Autophagy clears out these oxidised parts to keep the brain healthy. To protect your brain, it produces a protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). Higher BDNF levels increase mental clarity. Another thing that raises BDNF levels is ketones.

Your body switches to burning stored fat once glucose from your diet gets depleted. Because the brain cannot use fat as energy, some of this fat gets converted into ketones to power the brain. Ketones are like petrol over diesel. They are cleaner fuel. Less inflammatory than glucose. Increases BDNF level. And improves cognitive function.

Using stored fat improve the way your body store and use energy. Fats around organs like the liver damage liver cells. Leading to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Getting rid of these fats makes you more sensitive to insulin. Your muscle cells are more ready to take up glucose from the bloodstream. Thus, reduce the chance of weight gain.

Cold exposure calms the mind

Here's how cold showers use stress to destress your mind.

0-10 seconds: All your anxieties vanish the moment water hits your skin. The body has a bigger thing to worry now: the bone-piercing cold. Your body is trembling to stay warm. Your breath turns rapid and shallow. Your pulse is racing.

11-60 seconds: Your vagus nerve kicks in in response to the cold. While you continue to feel discomfort, your breathing deepens. Your heart rate begins to slow.

61-120 sec: Your body adapts to the cold. Mitochondria in brown fat heats up the body. The water feels warmer. Heart rate continues to dip. Endorphins, the feel-good hormones, flood the body. Your mind quiets down. It remains focused but relaxed.

Next 8-12 hours: Relaxation carries into sleep. Better sleep suppresses inflammation, leading to a better mood.

Exercise, fasting, and cold shower are bad times that build a healthy body.