Aging is a natural process of life and there’s nothing we can do about it or prevent it. Aging brings a certain amount of wisdom and piece of mind, and most of us are looking forward to it. However, what we don’t enjoy so much are the wrinkles, facial lines and older looking contours.
Even though we cannot stop the aging process, but we can visually turn back time and make us look younger than we really are, thanks to cosmetic procedures like eyelid surgery, facelift, neck lift and so on. But to be truthful, the key to a younger look is actually a combination of multiple factors.
Maintaining a youthful look requires:
- Good bones
- Proper skin care routine
- Healthy lifestyle
- Good nutrition
- Hormonal balance and
- Good genes
How differently men age from women?
You probably wondered who ages faster, men or women? Well, depending on lifestyle choices, exposure to the sun and other factors, do play a key role in how each gender ages. However, whether you age “well” or “poorly” is mostly predetermined by your genetics and of course some of the physical characteristics of your gender.
There is, however, a noticeable different in the ageing process between men and women and that is mostly determined by hormones which affect every aspect of our physique.
How do hormones affect the aging process?
During the aging process, the tissues in our body deteriorate and the cellular regeneration process starts to slow down. This is mostly noticeable in the fat redistribution, hormone production, on our skin and bones.
Based on studies done across the globe, women have a much longer longevity than men. On average, the life expectancy of men is approximately 69-70 years, while for women that’s between 73 and 77 years. This of course varies on where you live and a number of other factors.
Both men and women experience hormonal changes as they age. Hormone levels change, decline and the hormonal balance gets disrupted. Women enter menopause around the age of 48 which is often followed by hot flushes, anxiety, depression, mood changes etc.
Men can also go through a phase like this, called the “manopause” or andropause. However, with men, this change can happen really gradually since the level of hormones decreases about 1% each year. And this hormonal imbalance also affects men’s skin, sleep patterns, mood changes and libido.
Other signs of aging
Aside from the hormonal balance, or unbalance, there are other aspects of aging that can be different between men and women.
For example, men tend to have thicker skin due to the higher levels of testosterone than women. Men’s skin can even be 25% thicker than women skin. Furthermore, the collagen density in men can be a lot higher than in women and so can the level of moisture. Because of this, men are less prone to showing signs of skin aging then women do.
Hair loss is also another sign of aging. Now, unlike with skin aging, men tend to lose more hair (and faster) than women. It’s not uncommon that men lose the majority of their hair (if not all of it) by the age of 50. Complete hair loss is possible for women as well, but those are really rare cases.
So, in conclusion:
- Women will most likely live longer and won’t experience baldness like men will
- Women will also show signs of aging more rapidly than men would
- Men might not show certain signs of aging as women, but their life expectancy is generally shorter
- Men’s hormone levels will decrease slowly and gradually, but they will most likely experience hair loss and women won’t.
In our next post, we will be focusing on what can be done about this issue. We may not yet have the methods or techniques to stop the aging process, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot make ourselves look a bit younger.
