How our DNA can make us look older or younger

The DNA inside our cells holds the blueprint for how we look in the future, and it’s largely up to us whether aging occurs gradually or rapidly.

Part of the reason this is so intriguing to me is that we can strengthen this blueprint through consistent healthy habits. Our DNA is inside each of our cells, just like a memory bank or computer that holds a copy of instructions on how to continue to build replicas of itself.

The science of epigenetics shows that while our DNA sequence stays the same, factors such as diet, stress, sleep, toxins, and activity can influence how genes are turned “on” or “off” and, in turn, affect our aging and disease risk.

When we think of the fact that our body is made up of several trillion cells and that these cells have DNA inside each of them that instructs how the next cell generation is made, it becomes more important to us to not do things to our body that mess up these instructions, which pretty much happens every year to build the several trillion new generation of cells! This includes bone cells, heart cells, lung cells, skin cells, and all the cells that give our body elasticity and shape!

Bad habits are like a poor kitchen environment—the recipe is hard to read, but you must prepare it anyway. The result probably won’t taste or look as intended.

When we breathe in smoke and other pollutants instead of clean oxygen, drink fluids filled with processed sugars, phosphoric acid and caffeine, instead of good clean water, eat processed foods made inside a plant instead of from a plant, get caffeinated instead of rest and rejuvenation and then top it off by staying out of the sun like as if we’re vampires and think it better to take laboratory produced vitamin D, we give our DNA no choice but to build a more sickly generation of cells, causing what we see as premature aging or diagnosed as one of the chronic diseases.

The neat thing is that even someone with years of bad habits can start turning things around by practicing basic healthy habits. This is why someone can look years younger than they used to years earlier.

Keeping plenty of fruits and vegetables in our diet will help us get the daily antioxidants needed to counter oxidation that would otherwise build up in our bodies. Oxidation is what causes rust on a scratched vehicle and will have a similar effect on our cells, giving our DNA mixed signals on how to build the next generation of cells and causing our appearance to begin to change.  

Water, exercise, and sweating help our bodies eliminate toxins that build up, supporting the elimination process. However, when our body only removes these toxins through urination and feces, the chances increase that they will accumulate, potentially causing premature aging and degenerative disease.

Our body was created by a Master Creator who designed it to fight aging and degenerative disease, and it only asks for a few basic tools to do its job…

These 7 primary tools are:

1. Clean air.

2. Clean water.

3. Healthy, balanced diet.

4. Activities, connectivity, and exercise.

5. Sunshine.

6. Things that challenge the brain.

7. Good deep rest and stress relief.

Our healthy habits are to our several trillion cells like a recipe on a laminated page, protected from a tough kitchen environment. The chances that this recipe will continue to give clear, easy-to-follow instructions years later are much better.