Skin aging is a natural process, but external and lifestyle factors can accelerate it. While you can’t stop aging entirely, you can slow its progression and reduce its visible signs. Here’s how you can prevent or slow skin aging:

Protect your skin from the sun

The sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays are the leading cause of premature skin aging. To protect your skin from the sun, wear a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher every day, even on cloudy days. Reapply sunscreen every two hours, or more often if you are sweating or swimming.
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Protect from Sun Exposure:

Sunscreen: Use broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher. Apply every day, even if it’s cloudy or if you’re indoors most of the day (UVA rays can penetrate windows).
Clothing: Wear protective clothing, like wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves, when outdoors.
Shade: Seek shade, especially between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the sun’s rays are strongest.

Eat a healthy diet

Eating a healthy diet can help to keep your skin looking young and healthy. Make sure to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These foods are packed with antioxidants, which can help to protect your skin from damage. Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins can promote healthy skin. Antioxidant-rich foods combat free radicals that can age the skin.

Get enough sleep

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces more of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol can break down collagen, which is a protein that helps to keep your skin firm and elastic. Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night.

Manage stress

Stress can also contribute to premature aging. Find healthy ways to manage stress, such as exercise, yoga, or meditation. Chronic stress can make the skin more sensitive and accelerate aging. Find ways to manage stress, like meditation, yoga, or deep-breathing exercises.

Avoid smoking and excessive alcohol consumption

Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption can damage your skin and lead to premature aging. Smoking accelerates skin aging, leading to wrinkles, a dull complexion, and a leathery texture. Alcohol is dehydrating and can damage the skin over time. It’s best to drink in moderation.

Use anti-aging skincare products

There are a number of anti-aging skincare products available that can help to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, and age spots. Some popular anti-aging skincare ingredients include

Exercise Regularly:

Physical activity increases blood flow, helping nourish skin cells and keeping them vital. It also helps flush cellular debris out of the system.

Cleanse Gently:

Scrubbing your skin clean can irritate it, accelerating skin aging. Wash with a gentle cleanser instead.

Moisturize:

Moisturized skin looks more youthful and healthy. Opt for a moisturizer that suits your skin type.

Avoid Repeated Facial Expressions:

Repeatedly making the same facial expressions can lead to fine lines and wrinkles. Wearing sunglasses can help reduce lines caused by squinting.

Stay Hydrated:

Drinking plenty of water helps keep your skin hydrated and can improve its appearance.

Get Enough Sleep:

Aim for 7-9 hours per night. Sleep allows the skin to repair and regenerate.

Manage Stress:

Chronic stress can make the skin more sensitive and accelerate aging. Find ways to manage stress, like meditation, yoga, or deep-breathing exercises.

Use Skincare Products with Proven Ingredients:

Products containing retinoids, peptides, hyaluronic acid, certain antioxidants (like vitamin C), and alpha hydroxy acids can help reduce signs of aging.

Regular Skincare Routine:

Consistency is key. Establish a daily routine that includes cleansing, moisturizing, and sun protection.

Limit Exposure to Pollution and Environmental Toxins:

These can generate free radicals that damage skin and accelerate aging.

Avoid Tanning Beds:

UV light from tanning beds can cause premature skin aging and increase the risk of skin cancer.

The post How Can I Prevent or Slow Skin Aging? appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

New York, Oct 27 (IANS): Heart problems? A special diet might help as researchers have found that the popular and controversial ketogenic diet could completely prevent, or even reverse heart failure caused by a metabolic process.

For the findings, published in the journal Nature Metabolism, the research team looked at a metabolic process that seems to be turned down in failing human hearts.

“In an animal model, drastic heart failure in mice was bypassed by switching to high fat or “ketogenic” diets, which could completely prevent, or even reverse the heart failure,” said study author Kyle S McCommis from the Saint Louis University in the US.

“Thus, these studies suggest that consumption of higher fat and lower carbohydrate diets may be a nutritional therapeutic intervention to treat heart failure,” McCommis added.

According to the researchers, the heart’s myocardium requires vast amounts of chemical energy stored in nutrients to fuel cardiac contraction.

To maintain this high metabolic capacity, the heart is flexible and can adapt to altered metabolic fuel supplies during diverse developmental, nutritional, or physiologic conditions.

Impaired flexibility, however, is associated with cardiac dysfunction in conditions including diabetes and heart failure.

The mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) complex, composed of MPC1 and MPC2, is required for pyruvate import into the mitochondria.

This study demonstrated that MPC expression is decreased in failing human and mouse hearts, and that genetic deletion of the MPC in mice leads to cardiac remodelling and dysfunction.

“Interestingly, this heart failure can be prevented or even reversed by providing a high-fat, low carbohydrate ketogenic diet,” McCommis said.

“A 24-hour fast in mice, which is also ketogenic also provided significant improvement in heart remodelling,” McCommis added.

The findings showed that diets with higher fat content, but enough carbohydrates to limit ketosis also significantly improved heart failure in mice lacking cardiac MPC expression.

“Our study highlights the potential of dietary interventions to enhance cardiac fat metabolism to prevent or reverse cardiac dysfunction and remodelling in the setting of MPC-deficiency,” the authors wrote.

The post High-fat keto diets can prevent, reverse heart failure: Study appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of vision loss in people who have diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in working-age people in the United States. It can be prevented, but it is difficult to catch because it usually has no symptoms in the early stages of the disease. Once damage is done, it often cannot be reversed.

As the prevalence of diabetes rises, so does vision loss: In 2010, about 7.7 million Americans had diabetic retinopathy; by 2050, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention anticipates that number will be 14.6 million.

UNC ophthalmologist Seema Garg, MD, PhD, is working to educate people about the condition and how to prevent the vision loss caused by diabetes.

What Is Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy is caused by the effects of diabetes on blood vessels in the retina, the layer of tissue lining the back wall of the eye that sends signals to the brain in response to light and allows us to see.

People with uncontrolled diabetes have excess sugar in the bloodstream, which causes damage to blood vessels throughout the body. In the retina, this excess blood sugar can cause blockages that stop blood flow or produce leaks of fluid and blood. This can result in cloudy or blurred vision that can lead to blindness.

If you have diabetes, you are potentially at risk for developing diabetic retinopathy, which is why a yearly comprehensive eye exam is so important, Dr. Garg says.

“With timely screening and intervention, 90 percent of vision loss from diabetes can be prevented,” Dr. Garg says. “Therefore, guidelines have been established that recommend all patients with diabetes should receive at least an annual retinal exam.”

Diabetic Retinopathy: Symptoms and Diagnosis

Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy may include blurry vision, seeing spots or floaters, having a dark or empty spot in your eyesight, and difficulty seeing well at night. These symptoms usually don’t appear until later stages of the disease, when more damage has been done—and that damage may not be reversible.

Ophthalmologists can check for diabetic retinopathy several ways. The most common method is with pupil dilation, in which your doctor gives you eye drops to widen the center of the iris of your eye, which makes it easier to see issues in the inner parts of the eye.

If diabetic retinopathy is suspected, your doctor may follow up with retinal photography, which uses a camera to take a picture of the retina, or fluorescein angiography, a procedure in which a fluorescent dye is injected into the bloodstream, making blood vessels easier to photograph.

There are two types of diabetic retinopathy: nonproliferative (NPDR) and proliferative (PDR). NPDR is classified as the early stage of the disease in which there may be vision loss from leaky blood vessels, causing swelling of the retina (diabetic macular edema).

PDR is the more advanced form of diabetic retinopathy, when new, fragile, abnormal blood vessels grow, which may cause significant vision loss from bleeding and retinal detachment. Once diagnosed, treatment can begin to slow or stop the retinal damage caused by diabetes.

Treatment and Prevention of Diabetic Retinopathy

Treatment depends on whether you have NPDR or PDR. In early stages of the disease, your doctor may prescribe regular monitoring, along with a balanced diet to help manage blood sugar levels, exercise and adherence to your medications, including insulin.

For more advanced stages of diabetic retinopathy, laser treatment can be used to stop leakage of blood or fluid in the retina. Medication can also be injected into the eye to help treat diabetic macular edema and prevent new blood vessels from growing and causing more bleeding. In severe cases, your doctor may recommend a surgery called vitrectomy, which removes the vitreous, the gel-like fluid in the eye, and replaces it with another clear substance.

Of course, it is ideal to prevent diabetic retinopathy before it starts. The best way to do this is to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes by maintaining a healthy weight through exercise and a balanced diet. Some types of diabetes, like type 1 and gestational, cannot be prevented with diet and exercise.

For those diagnosed with diabetes, managing blood sugar levels and receiving a comprehensive yearly eye exam is the best way to prevent diabetic retinopathy or its progression, but for many people that’s not as simple as it sounds.

“Due to a variety of barriers—financial strain, lack of transportation, lack of awareness as to the threat to vision—on average, less than half of all Americans with diabetes receive their yearly retinal screening evaluation,” Dr. Garg says.

Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy

The screening rate for diabetic retinopathy can be as low as 3 percent in rural areas of North Carolina, Dr. Garg says. As a result, rates of vision loss in these communities are high. Through a study, Dr. Garg and fellow UNC physicians are trying to change this. They’re using telemedicine to bring retinal screening to patients during their routine diabetes clinic visits with their primary care doctors. The patients have their retinas evaluated remotely by an ophthalmologist, such as Dr. Garg.

“This is great for patients,” says Tom Miller, MD, a UNC internal medicine physician who is helping conduct the study. “Patients have their exam completed in about 10 minutes while they’re seeing their primary care doctor. We’re capturing people that probably wouldn’t get their eyes evaluated otherwise.”

The study also uses a new type of camera technology that captures a bigger and better image of the retina and does not require pupil dilation. The images are uploaded to a secure website and are remotely interpreted by Dr. Garg. Within 48 hours, a report containing a preliminary diagnosis and management plan is sent to the patient and his or her physician to discuss. If needed, patients with a certain degree of retinopathy are referred to an ophthalmologist for further eye care. Otherwise, the patient is scheduled for a repeat photograph in six months or a year.

The post How to Spot and Prevent Diabetes-Related Vision Loss appeared first on MyMedicPlus.