Winter 2009 Beauty

The process of ageing cannot be stopped, but it can be delayed by a few years. We list the top age repellents.

Easy Ways To Stop Ageing

TEA BREAK
Apart from being an excellent way to detoxify your body, drinking gallons of green tea can slow down the formation of wrinkles and dark circles. Green tea contains flavonoids that are known for their excellent anti-oxidant, anti-carcinogenic and enzyme altering activities. It acts as a natural antibiotic that helps in building immunity to keep minor ailments away.

LAUGH OUT LOUD
Laughter reduces the levels of stress hormone, cortisol, and releases health enhancing hormones such as endorphins. Lack of stress equals lack of stress lines and wrinkles. The best ways to ensure your daily dose of laughter are to stock your library with joke books, subscribe to a funny website, download a Russell Peters video or simply enroll at a laughter club.

GET A FRUIT FACIAL
But don’t head to the beauty parlour yet! Make your own mask with the fruit of your choice. You could smear some papaya puree on your face. The enzymes from the fruit, known as papain, exfoliate dry skin and reduce melanin accumulation. Or rub a chopped strawberry that is infused with ample beta-carotene and vitamin A to help in collagen regeneration.

BITE ON A BERRY
Berries such as raspberry and cherry contain anthocyanins, a water soluble pigment, that protect us from many age monsters. Research has linked consumption of anthocyanins to prolonged good vision and improved blood circulation. Eating berries also retards the effect of ageing, particularly in the areas of memory loss and degrading motor skills.

W FOR WRINKLE, W FOR WATER
There may be a list of gels that vow to help you get rid of that ugly wrinkle, but the simplest way to deal with this devil, lies in your own kitchen. Water helps in digestion, absorption, transport of nutrients and elimination of the body’s wastes. It detoxifies the body and improves skin’s turgidity to keep wrinkles at bay.

MOVE YOUR MUSCLE
Experts say engaging your body in strenuous muscle work can help you stay young for long. Involve yourself in daily chores such as cleaning the ceiling, carrying a heavy bucket, kneading dough, hammering a nail and the like. They help keep bone and muscle ailments such as arthritis at bay. At the gym, ask the instructor to draw up an exercise schedule that would help strengthen core muscles.

GO CITRUS SHOPPING
Our lifestyle needs more than an apple a day to keep the doctor away. Bite on some juicy oranges or sweet lime that come loaded with isoflavones. Isoflavones are known to reduce hot flashes in women and increase the bone mineral density. Citrus foods also retain the skin’s freshness and glow by acting as sun blockers.

GORGE ON SEX FOODS
Ageing leaves women to face more than mere wrinkles. With menopause comes lack of sex drive, weight gain and dryness of the vagina to name a few evils. Battle them by building a strong immunity with calcium enriched foods such as cheese, yogurt, banana and milk. Or gorge on the magical flaxseed and soy combo that is loaded with phytoestrogens.

VALUE YOUR WALKS
Doctors say walking is the best antidote to ageing. A brisk power walk every morning is a good way to keep your heart healthy. Walks strengthen the nervous system, which is bound to slow down with age.

It improves blood circulation and cleanses the lymph fluids to give you greater immunity. It also helps in delaying the physical signs of ageing such as pain in the joints.