12 Warning Signs Your Body Is Aging Faster Than It Should

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1:14All right, so you have a number on your driver's license, but your body is running on a completely different clock. And for a lot of people, the clock is running too fast. Why is it that two people can age at different speeds? You can have two people both at 50 years old. One has the arteries, the muscle, and the memory of a 38-year-old. And the other has the body of a 65-year-old. Same birthday, 27 years apart on the inside. And we can now measure that gap even with medical testing today. Today, I'm going to walk you through 12 signs that your body may be aging faster than it should. and every one of them is backed by real published medical research.

1:55And I'll also be diving into exactly how to reverse those signs of aging. And I'll give you those fixes in specific numbers you can start this week. And stay with me till the end because the last two signs are the ones almost nobody measures and the studies say they matter more than even your cholesterol levels. So for the next 40 minutes, I'm going to show you the 12 clearest signs that your biological age is climbing faster than your calendar in the exact research behind how to fix them. Welcome to the Dr. Axe Show.

2:42All right, so let me be clear about one thing to start. Your age in years and your age of your cells, those are two different numbers. Scientists call the second one your biological age, how old your body actually is on the inside. And here's the good news hiding inside that idea. If aging is happening at the level of your cells, then the speed of it is not fixed. In fact, a landmark study in 2018 showed that there are nine routine blood markers that predict how long you'll live better than your birthday does. And it showed up to a 15-year difference between people in their biological versus chronological age, and it could be even more than that.

3:22Studies of biological aging show two people born on the very same day can differ more than a decade in how old their bodies are. In fact, it can be multiple decades. So your DNA sets the starting line, but your daily habits set the pace. So that gap is the entire reason this episode exists. And it's why every fix is something that you can actually control. So a lot of people think genetics are the biggest driver of aging, which by the way, they're not. Now they can't contribute. And all of us have different risk factors and epigenetic switches that can be turned off that can cause us to age more quickly or more slowly.

4:00But the reality is it's lifestyle and things that are within your control. The single biggest things that move the needle for how fast you age are, one is overwhelming in terms of the clinical research, all the studies, is your fitness level, how strong you are, your cardiovascular fitness, your grip strength. I mean, things related to strength and overall fitness is at the very top of the list. And then we have sleep, and then we have stress, and then we have your overall diet, and then there's some other lifestyle issues. But those are the big ones. If you want to age more slowly, keep your fitness at a high level, sleep well, keep stress low, and eat well, those things will move the needle in a major way when it comes to slowing the aging process.

4:46Now, I mentioned this study earlier, this 2018 study in the journal Aging, and they looked at nine biomarkers that impact how we age. And they said that these markers were more predictive of mortality and longevity than your cholesterol levels. Now, here are these biomarkers. And by the way, I think that there are other biomarkers that are probably even more predictive than these biomarkers for a longer term that I'm going to get into later on in the show. So we'd call those, those are my, the Dr. Axe top biomarkers for longevity and mortality. But let me go through this study that was more effective at predicting your age than cholesterol or your mortality and longevity.

5:26One was albumin. This was really tied to liver and nutritional status. Creatinine, this is kidney function. Your fasting glucose, your blood sugar, of course, that's incredibly important. Number four, C-reactive protein. So that's important for inflammation. Your lymphocytes, of course, that's your immune balance, your mean cell volume. This is tied to your red blood cells, red cell distribution, alkaline phosphate. This is tied to the health of your liver, sometimes bone, and then your white blood cell count. So it's really looking at things like your liver health, your immune system health, your blood health, inflammation, blood sugar, or some of the primary markers that you could get tested for.

6:08And they determine if they stay healthy, whether you age slowly or you age quickly. By the way, before I dive deeper, I want to encourage you to do something. Subscribe here to the podcast. It's the number one thing you could do to support the show. It's also the number one thing you could do to make sure that you're getting this incredible content on a regular basis. also feel free to share this if you know somebody who needs to hear this information all right so let me dive into the 12 signals your body is sending that show that you're aging too quickly and this is based on medical research number one side you're aging and maybe aging too quickly as you're losing strength and muscle now listen everybody is going to age and everybody's going to lose some of their strength and muscle but the more you can preserve it the slower you'll age i And I think about myself when I was in my late 20s or around 30, peak of strength of body weight.

7:00But I've really maintained a lot of my strength and muscle mass over the years. And that's something I'm very conscious of. Now, here's the sign. Okay, jars are harder to open, right? Stairs leave you winded and your grip strength isn't what it was. And you just notice, hey, when you're lifting weights or doing certain things, your ability to move that weight has gone down tremendously. Those are warning signs that you're aging. Now, here's the fix. Lift weights two to three times per week. Now, it's not to say that you're not going to go down over time. I'll give you an example. My dad is 75 years old.

7:34And, you know, in his peak, he was probably benching. I don't know. You know, he would bench 250 pounds or more regularly. Now, my dad, when he does bench press at 75, he's not doing actually bench press anymore. He's doing dumbbells. But the guy, he's great. He's still doing 50s. He's still moving weights maybe before he was doing 75s or 70s. But at 75, he's doing really good. But he has decreased his weight, but it has been slowly over time. There are people where maybe moving the 30-pounders as a chest press is something you can't do anymore, even the 20s. But the key is not to lose any strength or muscle.

8:08The key is to maintain it at the highest level as long as you can. Lift weights two to three days per week, pushing a little heavier over time. and eat protein every meal, okay? High protein, lifting weights, muscles are a longevity organ. This is going to help. And there's a study that proves this, by the way. If you only track one physical sign of aging, make it your strength. It might be at the very, very top, if not number one. It's a cheap measure and it's really startlingly predictive. In one of the largest studies ever done, a simple hand grip test out predicted blood pressure for who would live and who would die.

8:53So this was across roughly 140 ,000 adults in 17 countries. Okay. Every five kilogram drop in grip strength was linked to a 16 % higher risk of death from any cause. This was out of the Lancet, really prestigious medical journal. So grip strength, really big predictor. And a lot of this has to do with, listen, your grip strength is going to be better if you are lifting weights, using bands, but generally doing any type of resistance training. If you're holding onto a bar and trying to do a pull-up, even if it's with a band, your grip strength will get better. If you're not doing those things, you're going to lose it.

9:29Remember the old saying, use it or lose it, right? If you are not challenging your body physically and strength in some way, you're going to lose it. And it really just takes two days a week, ideally three or more, but two days a week, you can do a pushing and pulling day or upper body and lower body day. You split it that way. But if you can keep doing some resistance training, even just two days a week, it will make a radical difference in your health. And if I had one prescription for you for longevity, it's this, get fit. And a great thing to pair that two days a week or more of strength training with is just walking.

10:04And then ideally, maybe one day of cardio where you get yourself a little bit of winded. But if you did, let's say you're doing very little and you went to doing two days of weight training, one day of cardio could just be 20 minutes, 15, 20 minutes. And then you just walked on the off days, just started walking a couple times a day, maybe 45 minutes a day or so. That is gonna get you incredible shape and maintain so much of your fitness. You know, when I think about health and fitness, There are some people that I followed in the media for a while who it's really amazing at how slowly they've aged and they're still doing the roles they're in, even into their 50s, their 60s, their 70s.

10:39You know, I think about people like Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman is 57 years old and he's been very disciplined with his eating. He's been very disciplined and just lifting weights regularly. I think about Jennifer Garner. You know, she does kickboxing class and strength training regularly and daily movement. You know, she was doing a superhero movie at 52. Again, Hugh Jackman will be doing it into his 60s. Denzel Washington, guy 71 years old. They said he dropped nearly 80 pounds and got leaned through steady discipline and just healthy eating. Mark Wahlberg, again, 55 years old, very healthy, very disciplined, working out every morning.

11:13Jennifer Lopez, she's 56. So we see these people, again, I'm thinking about also like Jennifer Aniston. These are people, celebrities, that have very, very good fitness routines and eating routines. But again, fitness is something they all have in common. And then there's another group of people that I really love to cheer for and root for. And those are Christian leaders. You know, and many of these people I have a close personal relationship with. You know, Michael W. Smith was just on the show here. You should watch his episode. It was wonderful. He's 68 years old. He shared a lot of his health and fitness routines, but he's gonna be creating music into his 70s and 80s and beyond.

11:48He's 68 right now. And they have chickens at home. He has a greenhouse. They have a big garden. He walks regularly. He works out regularly. He swims. He said that's his biggest thing he does for fitness is swimming regularly. And 68 years old, Michael W. Smith, you got Joyce Meyer. You know, I was on her podcast here last year. She's 83 years old, still preaching the gospel, leading a church. You've got John Bevere, who's 67. Lisa Bevere, 66. Craig Groeschel, who's been on the show as well. Good friend of mine. He's 58 and still doing great. And then Candice Cameron Bray, she's still doing television and media and creating a lot of shows and she's in her 50s now.

12:29And by the way, all of these people, I know them well, Michael W. Smith, I was talking to him about pickleball and swimming. John and Lisa Bevere, they're playing pickleball. John golfs regularly. Joyce is lifting weights. Craig is lifting weights and doing all kinds of activities. Candice can remember a very similar thing. They're all very active and fit. They're hiking, they're working out. And the other thing I love about these people is they've tied their fitness and health and they're doing it to glorify God. And they're The number one sign, number one thing you need to do to age more slowly is focus on your fitness.

13:05Number two sign that your body is aging more quickly than it should. Your energy crashes by mid-afternoon. Okay. You wake up tired. You have to rely on coffee to kind of get you through the day. That daily crash, maybe it's around two or three o 'clock, you're exhausted. That's mitochondrial fatigue. Okay. That's your hormones being imbalanced as well. that's a sign your body is aging more quickly than it should. Now, what you want to do is protect these power plants. Get them morning sunlight. Really, a lot of this has to do with balancing the hormone cortisol. Get sunlight. Walk 10 minutes in the morning.

13:41Go to bed on time. Get some good nutrients that support mitochondrial function like coenzyme Q10 and herbs like ashwagandha. These are going to help your cells age more slowly. Pomegranates, right? Blueberries, Doing more of these foods rich in polyphenols and antioxidants and allergic acid will help you age more slowly. They help your mitochondria. Also, balancing out cortisol is critical to slow aging. So as you know, I focus a lot of time on gut health and getting to the root cause. And it's one of the most important systems in your body and what you feed your gut matters. And that's why I want to tell you about Manucora's Manuka Honey.

14:23They conducted a study where participants took 20 grams of honey daily. That was 10 grams twice daily. And the results were impressive. 79 % reported reduced occasional bloating. 71 % reported positive changes in gut health. And 60 % reported less occasional reflux. Now, that's the kind of data I look for before recommending anything to my community. And honestly, it lines up with what I've experienced myself since I started taking it. And that's the kind of data I look for before recommending anything to my community. And I can also say this lines up with what I've seen in my clinic. When I have patients start using Manuka honey, it changes their gut microbiome, their immunity, and it's the greatest health swap out there for sugar.

15:10And it's a great addition to your morning health regimen. You can add it into oatmeal or a smoothie or some herbal tea or just do a spoonful. Your journey to better gut health starts right now. Head to manucor.com forward slash axe and grab the starter kit at 31 % off plus$25 in free gifts today. Sign number three you're aging too quickly is your skin is wrinkling and sagging too early. Listen, everyone's going to get wrinkles. Everybody, okay? Everyone's skin is going to start to sag. But if you notice over a period of a year or two years, wow, this has really come on more quickly. I think about this.

15:51I think about if you've ever seen presidents from when they start in office and after they leave office, how their hair will go so white or gray and their skin will change so much. I mean, for most presidents, you'll see they really age pretty quickly while being in office. And that's a sign of this stress, which then affects the skin. You know, biggest ways to improve that one is lower the stress levels, lower cortisol. That's very helpful. And then cut the sugar and refined carbs. You know, excess sugar causes these things called ages or these glycation end products that cause oxidative stress.

16:24It's like taking a bite out of an apple. It starts to age there. When your body has all of its antioxidants used up with oxidative stress, that starts to brown an apple. It starts to age your skin and your internal organs. So doing more vitamin C, more collagen-rich foods, more colorful fruits and vegetables, more things high in omega-3 fats like wild-caught salmon. And then of course, cutting the sugar and inflammatory fats in fast foods. That's going to help that in a big way. Number four sign that you are aging too quickly is if you are carrying more weight around your midsection, especially around your belly and your hips.

17:02That weight is typically hormonal, okay? And so if those hormones are off, it's going to cause cortisol to be up. It's going to drop estrogen, progesterone in women. In men, your testosterone will drop and your estrogen will actually go up. It will cause you to age more quickly. And so if you are storing fat around your belly and in your hips, actually, did you know this, that your body fat is an organ? Muscle's an organ. Body fat's an organ. You want to keep your body fat very low because the more body fat you have, the larger that organ is. But body fat, especially visceral fat that sits around your organs, that tends to give off inflammatory compounds and also sends hormonal signals that disrupt your thyroid.

17:50Of course, your metabolic health, your brain, your heart, your blood vessels. It causes your entire body to age more quickly. So you want to do everything you can to get rid of excess visceral body fat. And listen, you don't typically fight this with really with crunches. You do with a combination of eating a good diet, high in protein and fiber and lower in processed foods, good sleep, and then strength training and walking. Things like that is going to help tremendously slow that aging process in addition to helping you lose the unwanted visceral body fat and weight. Number five sign you're aging too quickly.

18:28You feel stiff, achy, and inflamed. Okay, you just wake up with stiff joints. Your joints are complaining. And again, these small injuries take a long, long time to heal. Now, here's the reality. You know, I feel like I've talked to several people about this recently. I was talking to Michael W. Smith. I was talking to my wife. That, you know, the older you get, the more you just feel it in your joints. You know, and I'm getting down playing with my girls all the time. And of course, I don't feel like I did when I was 18 years old. I'm in my mid-40s, but I still feel pretty good. My joints still feel pretty good, and I want to keep it that way as long as possible.

19:01But if you notice that your joints are achy and stiff, and especially if that's come on more quickly and suddenly, you want to do everything you can to calm that inflammation. In fact, in medical journals, sometimes it's called inflammation because the inflammation is causing your joints and body to age more quickly. And here's the fix for this. consume a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, so wild-caught fish, take a good fish oil supplement. In addition to that, use extra virgin olive oil, use turmeric, use ginger, use balsuolia, eat a lot of fruit and a lot of vegetables, and then just move daily.

19:38Lots of walking, if you can do time in the pool, things like that, but whatever you can to move your joints and reduce inflammation of your joints and body, that's gonna help reverse that type of aging. And then here's another one. Your sleep is short and broken, okay? You fall asleep late. Maybe you wake up around 3 a.m. and then the rest of the time, you're kind of sleeping, it's just broken. You're not getting back into deep sleep after 3 a.m. You just never feel fully rested. Sleep is when your brain literally power washes itself, okay? It is clearing, it is healing. This is also when your mitochondria, your body's batteries are getting recharged while you're sleeping at night.

20:18So if you're not sleeping well, you are definitely aging too quickly. Guard your sleep like medicine, right? Seven to nine hours, the same wake up time every day. Typically, you're going to bed at 9.30, you're waking up at 6.30, something like that. That's what you want. You want your room to be cold and dark, probably 65 degrees, no screens. You want it to be as black as possible and just in a good nightly rhythm, right? No blue light before bed, sun early in the morning. Those things are going to help you heal and stay younger. You know, my parents now, they have a practice where pretty much every morning they wake up, they both do, you know, a superfood breakfast, superfood smoothie, and they immediately go outside for a walk.

20:58They'll typically go walk for 45 minutes down this kind of long path. And they're in Florida. So even when it's the middle of the summer, they're also trying to wake up early before it's, you know, in the upper 90s at, you know, 100 % humidity. But again, they're out there, they're doing this every single morning. And I do this as well in the morning is I like to wake up, go for a walk. And then I just, I like to do a 20 minute walk in the morning and just be grateful, praise God, and just spend some time getting my mind right is so powerful to do that. And that even prepares you for sleep later on in the evening.

21:28You know, there's a system in the brain, it's called your glymphatic system, which actually clears and removes metabolic waste, including amyloid beta, roughly twice as fast during sleep as during wakefulness. And the same goes for your mitochondria recharging, your body is going to recharge way, way more when you're sleeping. And also, this is why it is big at reducing dementia. If you're not sleeping well, it increases your risk of dementia versus if you are, decreases the risk. The number seven sign that you are aging more quickly than you should is you are stressed and you are running on cortisol.

22:05You feel wired but tired, your mind won't switch off, and you're leaning on stress to get through the day, right? Chronically high cortisol breaks down muscle, weakens sleep, and has shown to shorten the protective caps on your DNA, your telomeres. Here's my biggest piece of advice for this. Have more margin in your life, okay? Don't say yes to everything. First, know what your priorities are and really focus on those things and say no to everything else. Don't have something scheduled from the second you wake up to the second you go to bed and then all through the weekend. You know, take Sundays and make that a Sabbath where just total rest, just God and family, that's it.

22:40Have Saturdays. Now listen, you might have kids that have sports and so sometimes you're traveling and doing stuff, but if you don't, try and create some space and time to just relax. Carve out some time to spend with God, even if it's just 15 minutes. Sometimes a 20, 15, 20-minute reset can make a really big difference. So build in real recovery, time for prayer, time for reading the Bible, time for outside, time for a walk, more family time, time where your body can catch up and get refreshed and get out of the fight or flight state. And if you know you're in the state all the time, just schedule in a few times a week.

23:16Here's one thing that I found helps me. Once we eat dinner, we like to eat dinner early at our house, like five o 'clock or 530. After that, do not touch work again. Play with your kids, connect with your family, read a book, watch a show for a little bit, but not too late because you're better off listening to an audio book. So you're not looking at that light too late. But overall, just have these little things within your week that allow you to de-stress. This is huge. Now listen to this. The most stressed women have telomeres equivalent to 9 to 17 additional years of biological aging. 17 years.

23:49So they found in a study that the women that were the most stressed, their telomeres showed that they were 17 years older than other people. Think about that. Stress alone can age you 17 years. And I think that number can be much higher. Of course, you know, let's say you throw in 17 years of stress aging, another, you know, 18 years of food-based aging, you're aging yourself 35 years, and then there's other things on top of it. So the reality is, here's the positive thing. You can start to reverse your age really quickly when you start eating correctly, moving correctly, sleeping correctly, and living correctly in tune with the Bible, the way God created.

24:30God doesn't want you stressed out constantly and frantic. Think about this. You're his child. So when I look at my daughters, I want them peaceful. Listen, I want them using their God-given gifts. I want them being productive. But I also want them laughing and enjoying life and having free time to do the things they love. God wants the very same thing for you. Sign number eight, you're aging too quickly. Your memory and focus are slipping. You walk into rooms and forget why. You lose words mid-sentence. And you feel a fog sometimes on your brain. And sometimes that's lasting for longer and longer periods of time.

25:03Listen, a little bit of that is normal. Listen, if you're in your 80s and watching this, and by the way, my grandmother used to always do this. So in our family, it's like everybody's got the name starts with a J. I'm Josh. My brother's name was Jordan. My cousins were Jason. And we've got Jeremiah. We've got all these J's. And so my grandmother would constantly say, she would literally go through, it was like a, and by the way, I'm wondering if you have a parent or if you've ever done this or know somebody who would do this, she would go, Jason, Jordan, Josh. I mean, literally, there was always one or two names before mine when she got to be in her later 80s.