Most people are aware that negative lifestyle habits like smoking and excessive alcohol can lead to rapid aging. But what about the repeated stress and poor nutrition that are so often a part of a high-pressure style of living today? Read on to see what could be causing rapid aging in your life.

1. Poor Diet
What you eat probably affects your health more than anything else you do. When you eat a poor diet—fatty, processed, or fried foods and simple sugars—you invite rapid aging by burdening your body with chemical additives and trans-fats and depriving your body of essential nutrients. On the other hand, when you eat the life-giving foods, you prevent disease and improve organ functioning.

In general, your diet should consist of a wide array of colors and balance of organic sources of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, whole grains, legumes, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. Numerous studies show that the different pigments in the skins of fruits and vegetables are powerful antioxidants that are crucial for maintaining health, preventing cancer, and protecting against environmental toxins.

Avoid fatty foods, processed or fried foods. Keep dairy to a minimum because most dairy products are high in saturated fat. Take candy, sugar, soda, and all simple sugars out of your diet. Excess sugar gets stored as fat in your body, which spells in weight gain—a sure path to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes. You truly are what you eat, so eat well!

2. Unhappiness
Unhappiness does not only depress your mood, it also negatively affects your health. In fact, depressed, unhappy people are twice as likely to develop heart disease. And it has been confirmed that personality profile Type C—people that tend towards melancholy, depression, and excessive worry—are prone to develop cancer. Do not underestimate the power of your mind. Your experience is determined by the energy you embody, and in the end, it is your choice to have a negative perception or a positive attitude in reaction to life's breakdowns.

Years ago, I had the pleasure of working with the late Norman Cousins. His research showed that the mind has a powerful influence on many physiological functions, including the immune system. He found that an increase in immune killer cells that attack cancer occurred in cancer patients who experienced 30 minutes of deep belly laughter every day for twelve weeks. Laughter also increases the release of endorphins, compounds that give you a sense of well-being. Undoubtedly, joyful people liver longer and healthier lives.

3. Lack of Exercise
I have never met a healthy person or centenarian that lived a physically inactive life. Exercise is essential for a healthy metabolism, proper energy circulation, and the expelling of cellular wastes. Being overweight and inactive is a surefire path to rapid aging and a host of diseases. Cardiovascular exercise is the key to speeding up your metabolism, burning excess calories, and fighting body fat. Brisk walking, hiking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, stair climbing-the options are endless for cardio health! Exercise for 30 minutes at 60-80% of your MHR (You can find this number by subtracting your age from 220.) Regular exercise is also the key to preventing non-insulin-dependent diabetes, which is the fastest growing disease in industrialized countries throughout the world.

You can stave off rapid aging to your muscles, joints, and tendons by practicing exercises that extend your range of motion; some options include tai chi, qigong and yoga. Check out simple tai chi moves that you can learn easily in my book, Harmony Tai Chi by clicking here. Also, moderate load-bearing exercises are essential for bone density and muscle strength. Don't forget when you are exercising to always warm up and cool down properly to avoid injury.

4. Stress
Stress is a huge byproduct of our busy lives and it takes a tremendous toll on our health. Our body's "survival mode" gets turned on all too often these days. When you are experiencing stress, your body is programmed to go into fight-or-flight mode, a state that requires a lot of energy. Adrenaline is released from the adrenal gland, and it tells the body to convert stored sugar from the liver to glucose because the energy needs of the body increase substantially during the supposed fight-or-flight scenario.

Unfortnately, this scenario almost never plays out and the excess blood sugar that never got used ends up being stored as fat—inevitably resulting in weight gain. What's more, all of this stress continually depletes your body of its energy resources until it crumples under the overload, leading to adrenal exhaustion, a nervous breakdown, or a broken-down immune system.

To stay stress-free, remember to breathe deeply all day. And give yourself a break! You are a human, not a machine. Try taking a 15-minute powernap during your lunch break. If you only have 5 minutes to spare, just closing your eyes will release tension. Better still, consider taking up meditation, a great way to dissolve stress. To learn more about how to use meditation to decrease stress, click here.

5. Lack of Sleep
There's no way around it: the average adult needs seven to eight hours of quality sleep every night to maintain health. Consider that your immune system drops by an average of 60% after just three nights of poor sleep. Without sufficient "recovery time" each night, you will run your body down and wear out your life force, paving the way for disharmony and disease.

許多人意識到不良的生活習慣如吸煙和酗酒能導致加速衰老。但是現代社會高強度生活節奏中不時出現的反復壓力和營養不良會帶來什么呢？讀下去吧，看看在你一生中什么原因能導致你加速衰老。

1、糟糕的飲食

你吃什么可能比你做的其它任何事情對你健康的影響都大。當你吃那些糟糕的食品——油膩的、加工的或油炸食品和單糖類食品——的時候，你正用化學添加劑和反式脂肪*及通過剝奪身體必須的營養成分來給身體加壓，進而加速你身體的衰老。相反，當你吃那些“生命活力”食品的時候，你可以預防疾病和增強身體器官的功能。

一般來說，你的飲食內容應當包含各種各樣顏色（食品）和各種有機精益蛋白質來源的平衡，混合型碳水化合物，全谷類，豆類，水果和蔬菜。許多研究表明水果和蔬菜表皮中各式各樣的天然色素是強效抗氧化劑，那是保持健康、防癌和使身體免受環境毒素侵害的重要營養成份。

避免攝入油膩食品，加工和油炸食品。保持最低的牛奶攝入量，因為大部分牛奶都含有大量的飽和脂肪。把糖果、糖、蘇大和所有的單糖食品從你的菜單中拿走。過量的糖會轉化為你體內的脂肪而使你體重增加——必然導致心血管疾病、高血壓和糖尿病。種瓜得瓜種豆得豆，所以吃得科學點吧！

2、憂慮

憂慮不僅讓你心情沮喪，也損害你的健康。實際上，抑郁和不快的人得心臟病的幾率是正常人的兩倍。有證據顯示C型個性特征的人——那些有憂郁、消沉和過分擔心的人——更容易得癌癥。千萬不要低估你情緒的影響力。你的經歷是由你表現出來的能力決定的，但最終，在人生低谷的時候擁有消極看法還是積極態度是你自己的選擇。

幾年前，我有幸同已故的Norman Cousins一起工作。他的研究表明情緒對許多生理機能有重大的影響，包括免疫系統。他發現，在經歷20天每天半小時捧腹大笑后，癌癥患者體內攻擊癌細胞的免疫K細胞數量有所增長。笑也會釋放體內的安多芬，這是一種能給你幸福感的化學物質。毋庸置疑，快樂的人活得更久更健康。

3、缺乏鍛煉

我從沒遇到過一個不積極鍛煉的健康人或者百歲老人。鍛煉對健康的新陳代謝、恰當的能量循環和體內廢物的排除是必不可少的。超重和缺乏運動是加速衰老和滿身疾病的必然原因。心肺功能運動是加速新陳代謝、燃燒多余卡路里和減肥的關鍵。快走、徒步旅行、慢跑、游泳、自行車和爬樓梯—這么多保持健康方法的選擇！以最大心率（MHR，可以通過220減去你的年齡得到）的60-80%心率水平鍛煉半小時。經常性的鍛煉也可以防止“非胰島素依賴性”糖尿病，這是全球工業化國家增長最快的疾病。

你能通過擴展你的關節活動度鍛煉來避免肌肉、關節和肌腱的加速衰老；一些包括太極、氣功和瑜伽的選擇。利用在我書里可以輕松學會的簡單太極拳吧，“和諧太極”點這兒。同樣，適當的負重鍛煉對骨密度和肌肉力量也是必須的。別忘了鍛煉時必須進行合理的熱身和冷卻以避免受傷。

4、壓力

壓力是我們忙碌生活的巨大副產品而且它導致我們的健康遭受極大損害。這時期（承受壓力期間）我們身體的“生存方式”時常變得興奮。當你遭受壓力時，你的身體進入了“戰斗或逃跑”模式，這種狀態需要大量的能量。腎上腺素被從腎上腺釋放出來，它告訴身體把儲存的糖通過肝臟轉化成葡萄糖，因為在假定的“戰斗或逃跑”劇本中身體的能量需求顯著增強了。

不幸的是，這樣的劇本幾乎從來不會演完而且那些永遠不會被消耗的血糖最終作為脂肪存儲在體內——不可避免地造成體重增加。更為嚴重的是，所有這些壓力會持續消耗你身體的能量資源直到身體由于負荷過重而垮掉，這將導致腎上腺疲勞，神經失常或免疫系統故障。

為了保持輕松，別忘了每天不斷深呼吸。給自己一點空閑吧！你是個人，不是機器。試著在你午休期間小睡15分鐘。如果你只有5分鐘的多余時間，就只好閉上眼睛來緩解壓力了。冥想或許是更好的選擇，這是個消解壓力的好方法。想知道更多如何用冥想來減輕壓力，點這兒。

5、缺少睡眠

這是個無法回避的事實：成年人平均每個晚上需要7到8個小時的高質量睡眠來保持健康。記住只要3個晚上睡眠不足免疫系統就平均降低60%的功效。沒有每晚足夠的“恢復時間”，你的身體將每況愈下而精疲力竭，走向身體失衡和患病的道路。