5 Things That Will Age You

Feb. 5, 2009 — -- People have searched for the fountain of youth for centuries. And, while it remains elusive, there are things you can do to slow the aging process, or speed it up. Oprah's favorite doc, Dr. Mehmet Oz, discusses the five things that age people most.

By the time you're age 50, 70 percent of how you age is going to depend on your lifestyle, things that you do.

The No. 1 driver of aging is blood pressure. That seems tedious, boring and a humdrum problem. But blood pressure is so important because it's like a fire hydrant.

It's squirting blood against the arteries of the body, which scrapes and erodes their lining; with the thin layer of protection gone, the arteries begin to scar.

The result is hardening of the arteries, as well as strokes. For guys, it leads to one bigger issue, which is impotence.

Men are lucky because they have a dipstick for health. It's called the penis.

When it's not working, it means that those little arteries in the penis aren't functional. That means the blood can't get in there.

And guess what? If it's not working there, those same arteries aren't working in your brain or your heart or your kidneys, or all the other critical organs.

Normal blood pressure is 140 over 80. But the optimal blood pressure is 115 over 75.

The higher number is the maximum force with which the heart pushes the blood out. The lower number is how much your arteries can relax. So you don't want too much force because you're wasting energy. You're also destroying arteries. But you also want to know that you're relaxed.

So 140 over 90, a little bit more than your recommended, is actually hypertension. So you don't want to be even close to that.

Belly fat is the main reason that Americans get high blood pressure and even a little bit of it could be too much for some people.

The ideal waist size is half your height in inches. So if you're 40 inches around in, in your girth, you've got to be 80 inches tall.