The Oddly Intriguing Way Men Help The Women They Love Look Younger
How love can make someone look younger.
Syda Productions | Canva As they age, even the most attractive women (and men!) may strive to unlock the secret of how to look younger and maintain their physical beauty longer.
Understandably, single women want to look and feel their best no matter their age, and quite naturally, those who are happily married or still deeply in love and in long-term relationships want to maintain their husbands' attraction to them.
These wives have a secret anti-aging weapon unknown even to themselves ... their husbands play a major role in keeping them looking and feeling younger.
Research has shown that marriage and committed, romantic relationships that are nurturing and compassionate have powerful positive effects on one's physical and mental health, as "having that long-term bond ... alters hormones in a way that reduces stress."
On the other hand, I have said far more than once upon seeing someone who seems older than his or her years, "Wow, look at that person. He (or she) must have had a hard life."
This is usually the case when I see someone who has more wrinkles than one would expect for their age, as well as the overall look of someone who has experienced a great deal of chronic stress.
We don’t usually think in terms of how we can bring out the youth and attractiveness of our partner, but our significant other plays nearly as important a factor in the manner in which we age as other important lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise.
RELATED: Why Some People Age Faster Than Others, According To Research
Here's an experiment you can try in your relationship.
Start by making a mental note of your partner’s general looks.
Next, commit to being more genuinely attentive and affectionate with them for the entire next week.
Loving your partner, going out of the way for your partner, and being romantic with your partner should be your number one priority. Think ahead about what you will do or say to make their day better when you're on your way home from work or wherever you are coming from.
Then, after one week, take stock to see if your partner looks any different to you.
Happiness is far less expensive than plastic surgery, and when you put your partner’s happiness high on your priority list, you can evoke a significant shift in their attitude and perspective.
Integrative physicians such as Michael Roizen and Deepak Chopra have spoken about how healthy relationships create healthy bodies, and as a professor at the University of Southern California, I teach my graduate students about telomeres, the regions of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protects DNA strands from unraveling, in the same way, a shoelace tip protects a shoelace from unraveling.
Research has found links between the length of telomeres and longevity, as well as between the size of telomeres and loving relationships, and the mounting evidence indicates that loving relationships serve to reduce inflammation, slowing down the entire aging process.
So, if you catch yourself silently complaining about your partner’s looks or the physical changes they are undergoing as they age, consider how you can do more of your part to help slow down their aging process and bring back their youthful prowess.
Challenge yourself to do the week-long test and see what you observe.
Go all in, don't hold back, and pay attention to detail! That is the only way to do an accurate test.
You might not make your 50-year-old spouse look like they're 23 again, but you will have a positive impact on their self-esteem, your love, and your relationship.
Todd Creager is a marriage and intimacy therapist, author, and speaker.