Want to support you body through its healthy ageing? Try these four simple steps and you’ll never look back (or if you do, at least your neck won’t hurt).
1. Load it up
To optimise your bone health through perimenopause and beyond, resistance train twice weekly. Studies show it helps kick bone-forming cells into action, while slowing down age-related bone mass decline.
Any form is great, but compound lifts such as squats and deadlifts deliver the heaviest skeleton benefits*.
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2. Wear SPF, rain or shine
You heard: even when the cloud cover is more dense than your grade 9 bully, it pays to slap it on.
In a 2016 study, people who applied an SPF straight after washing their face each morning showed reduced symptoms of skin ageing – such as wrinkles and uneven skintone – after an 18-month period.
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3. Eat for your hormones
With oestrogen stores declining as you head towards menopause, including phytoestrogens (naturally occurring plant substances that imitate the OG) in your diet can have a balancing effect.
According to an Iranian study*, help reduce the frequency of hot flushes in menopausal women. Find them in soya beans, legumes and whole grains.
4. Take it to paper
If life right now feels like you’re juggling an impossible amount, whack out your journal.
Journalling had been shown to boost cognitive function and memory, relieve stress, improve mindfulness and even help support your immune system, per a US study*. Research suggests 20 minutes, three or four days a week, is plenty.
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