Don't let stress build up. The effects of stress on overall health and aging is staggering. Stress makes our body secrete the hormone cortisol, which causes us to store fat around our belly. This is part of our natural, hard-wired response to stress. The body thinks we’re in a life-threatening situation and that we might starve, so it wants to store extra energy. Stress is one of the reasons so many people gain weight around their midsection as they age, and it contributes to

When we think of metabolism we think of it as being "how fast our we burn the calories we eat, but it’s far more than that. Metabolism is the sum of chemical processes that occur within our body by which our cells are created, maintained, and broken down, and by which energy is produced. So, our metabolism is responsible for building and maintaining all the cells in our entire bodies (including muscle and bone tissue), for determining where and how much fat gets stored or bur