Most women spend thousands on skincare, haircare, and beauty treatments in the hope of reversing dull skin, hair fall, and other visible signs of ageing. What they often overlook is actually happening inside their body.

According to a nutritionist, Rashi Chowdhary, the real problem may lie far beneath the surface. In a recent Instagram post, she reveals three key blood markers that could be silently accelerating the ageing process. Here are the three basic things she wants every woman to pay close attention to:

Ferritin

It's blood protein that stores iron inside cells in a safe and soluble form. “Iron is one of the key things your body uses to build collagen,” she shares, adding that if hair starts shredding or thinning and your skin loses bounce, you are probably lacking ferritin. “If you have 15-20 ng/mL it is normal, but if you want shiny hair and supple skin you must need at least 50-70 ng/mL,” she adds.

Vitamin B-12

The nutritionist reveals that low vitamin B-12 ages the brain and nerves faster. “When you are low on vitamin B-12 a marker called homocysteine goes up and high homocysteine literally shrinks your brain down,” she explains, adding that estrogen clears out this excess homocysteine but in peri-menopausal women estrogen goes up and down and the homocysteine clearance does not take place, instead remains high. 

“Then when your Vitamin B-12 levels are 250 pg/mL you're told it is normal but you need your B-12 levels between 500 to 700 pg/mL and make sure your homocysteine levels don't climb above 7,” she advises.

Magnesium

“When you are checking your magnesium, you're doing blood tests but only 1% of the actual magnesium is in your bloods,” she reveals explaining that the body keeps that 1% in the blood, looking perfect on the bloodwork by “stealing” magnesium from the cells and bones. 

“Magnesium is what your cells use to repair you at the DNA level and when there's no magnesium there's cellular damage and cellular aging happening," she says, recommending that instead of doing regular magnesium tests women should ask for RBC magnesium tests to check their accurate levels.

"Sometimes the answer is not another serum, collagen powder, or facial. Sometimes it's hidden in those ‘normal' blood reports you've been told not to worry about,” she says, adding that it is better to treat the root cause instead of focusing only on the surface.



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