1. Turn salt around to slow down aging.
Most of us enjoy adding taste with a bit of salt; sodium is really a necessary component of our diet and helps the body to maintain its fluid balance. Though you need some salt to maintain your heart, liver and kidneys in excellent health for as long as possible, too much is clearly a negative thing. Eating too much salt has been linked by studies to have the opposite effect, negatively affecting these particular organs!
Eating too much sodium will raise your blood pressure and increase your chance of cardiovascular disease. Although everyone can experience this, the risk is more for those over fifty. As you age, blood pressure increases; therefore, your risk of stroke or heart failure increases.
Another important reason to cut your salt consumption is as too much can hasten your aging. This is the result of the telomere shortening action of salt, claims an American Heart Association study. Telomeres guard the end of your chromosomes from cell harm; as they wear down, diseases including diabetes, cancer, and dementia are more likely to strike.
Young obese adults engaged in the study had advanced cellular aging from excessive salt intake. So consider the effects all that extra sodium intake could produce if you are over fifty!
According to the research, especially in obese people, cutting sodium consumption slows down the process of cellular aging. Actually two of the main risk factors for accelerated aging are sodium and obesity.
