Winter…my favorite time of year…NOT!  January has certainly brought with it some crazy low temps.  Fewer daylight hours, always cold, and I often resemble Randy from ‘A Christmas Story’ in how bundled up I sometimes am.  I don’t know about you, but all I want to do is curl up indoors and look at the TV.  Maybe I’m watching something that is taking place where it’s warm so I can pretend that I’m there.

Here’s something we don’t think about:  The way we handle the weather most likely has an impact on your aging process.  Consider this…

1. Heating is drying you out.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night with dry mouth, lips, or nostrils?  The more time we spend curled up indoors, the more exposed we are to central heating, space heaters, and fireplaces.  Believe it or not, the dry hot air is pulling all of that moisture from your skin.  One way to remedy that is to invest in a humidifier because they actually pump moisture into the air, making your skin more hydrated, and therefore…more comfortable.  Bonus…humidifiers help a room retain heat.

2. Tanning is not your friend. 

I think maybe I was a fan of this activity for about 5 minutes when I was younger.  Throughout the winter, some people start to feel conscious of the skin becoming more pale as winter drudges on.  What do they do?  Head for the tanning salons.  Yikes!  Here’s a newsflash…the UV lights that are in tanning beds damage the collagen and elastin in your skin, causing problems such as premature wrinkling, sagging, dark spots and a cigar-smoking Kramer-like complexion.  If you have to be brown, maybe look at purchasing some bronzer.

3. Hot toddies and sweet desserts should be avoided for more reasons than just the possibility of weight gain. 

A lot of us gain weight during the holidays, right?  Yours truly no exception.  Wait gain is generally a given.  Fun facts about sugar and alcohol, which seem to go hand in hand with the holidays:  Alcohol is a dehydrate and depletes your skin’s vitamin A, which is vital in keeping your skin supple. Sugar causes inflammation in the body and damages proteins in your skin.

4. Those hot showers may not be doing you a lot of good. 

 Me, I love a hot shower when it’s cold out, or even better, a hot bath.  It’s definitely relaxing, and often times it is what gets us warm in the morning after stepping onto a cold floor.  Bad news, though, not showers strip your skin of its top layer which lock in the moisture and can lead to dry, itchy, flaky skin.  Yikes!  Try to use warm water if you can take it.  Also try to use some sort of moisturizer as well.  You too guys.

5. Cold weather may make you less likely to exercise.

Lastly, many of us find ourselves slacking in the fitness department when the weather is colder.  Hey, it’s a lot of work to put on gym clothes, coat, pack up shoes, boots, start the car, clear off the car, etc.  However, studies have shown that exercise over time can keep inflammation at a lower level, which is linked to many age-related diseases.

We all want to look younger, right?  Apparently, like anything, it takes work to obtain goals.  All I can say is, hurry up Spring!

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