Aging is something that effects almost every aspect of your body. While some behaviors, like sunbathing, cause a specific part of your body to age faster, like your skin, there are some behaviors which can cause premature aging in several parts of your body or even your entire body. Here are those dreadful behaviors which you should avoid at all costs.

Smoking

Smoking would be too obvious to mention if only it wasn’t too important to overlook. Despite the fact that smoking causes COPD, lung cancer and heart disease, along with a host of other terrible things, many people don’t even try to stop smoking, until it’s too late. But in a society where so much emphasis is placed on being young and beautiful, what if smoking caused you to look the exact opposite? Well, it does.

Have you ever heard of collagen? Perhaps not but for your information, collagen is a protein in our body, the most abundant protein to be exact, that is tasked with holding the body together. In terms of our skin, collagen gives it strength and elasticity. Smoking destroys that ever-important collagen causing you to become wrinkled faster than you otherwise would.

Stress

Stress is unavoidable and therefore, our bodies are designed to effectively react to it. Sometimes, however, our bodies need a little bit of help. Ignoring this need allows stress to build up and creates many problems. Lifestyle changes, meditation, and exercise are great ways to mitigate the result of stress on our bodies.

For men, chronic stress can cause erectile dysfunction, something that can already be a problem with age. For women, stress can cause an irregular menstruation cycle and exacerbate the symptoms of menopause.

Stress also wreaks havoc on a specific part of our DNA called telomeres. The effects of stress cause these telomeres to shorten and eventually die which speeds up the aging process. Stress also can cause blood pressure problems and disrupt your sleeping pattern.

Inadequate Sleep

It doesn’t take many nights of insufficient sleep for you to feel the effect. Often, after a single night of inadequate sleep can make for a long day and after several days of poor sleep you might expect to feel the onset of a cold due to a compromised immune system. Now, imagine insufficient sleep over the course of many years and life can become a nightmare.

If you have looked closely at your own face after not getting enough sleep, you likely noticed the bags or dark spots around your eyes and maybe even a new wrinkle or two. This is a direct result of inadequate sleep.

Perhaps a more frightening result of not getting enough sleep is the inability to focus properly and a less than effective memory. Both of these are symptoms that old age will bring without the added help from not sleeping enough. Oftentimes, as we age, our decreased brain function can be more embarrassing than the more obvious physical manifestations of old age.