Ever felt like aging sometimes sneaks up on you with a vengeance? Well, a new study has cracked the code: there are two prime moments in your life when your body decides to go full drama queen with the aging process.
Researchers from Stanford University have found that aging doesn’t actually creep up on us over the years. Instead, it happens in two major, accelerated bursts.
Highlights
- Aging doesn't creep up gradually but rather happens in major bursts at two different points in life.
- Researchers tracked 135,000 types of molecules in 108 adults aged 25 to 75 for age-related changes as part of the study.
- The mid-40s and early 60s are periods of dramatic change, the researchers found.
- “We’re not just changing gradually over time. There are some really dramatic changes,” the co-author of the study said.
The groundbreaking study tracked 135,000 types of molecules in 108 adults aged 25 to 75. The researchers tracked the molecules every three to six months for age-related changes, and they concluded that the majority of the sampled molecules did not change steadily over time.
Researchers of a new study have found that aging is not a gradual process but happens in spurts at two particular ages
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The findings concluded that there are two significant waves of age-related changes that occur around ages 44 and 60.
“We’re not just changing gradually over time. There are some really dramatic changes,” said Michael Snyder, a geneticist and senior author of the study.
“It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s — and that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at,” added the director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University.
The results were concluded after the researchers tracked 135,000 types of molecules in 108 adults aged 25 to 75
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Researchers assessed the thousands of different molecules and microbes using blood, stool, skin, oral, and nasal samples from the 108 volunteers over several years.
The first wave of changes around the mid-40s was related to cardiovascular disease and the body’s ability to metabolize caffeine, alcohol, and fats.
The second wave, around age 60, involved molecules associated with immune regulation, carbohydrate metabolism, and kidney function. Notably, molecules linked to skin and muscle aging shifted at both ages.
The findings concluded that humans experience the most "dramatic" aging changes at the ages of 44 and 60
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Researchers initially believed that the aging spike occurring at the mid-40s mark was linked to perimenopausal changes in women. However, the data suggested that men in their mid-40s were also undergoing similar changes.
“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women,” Dr. Xiaotao Shen, a former postdoctoral scholar at Stanford Medical School and first author of the study, was quoted saying.
“It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s — and that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at,” said Michael Snyder, co-author of the study
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Dr. Xiaotao, who now works as a computational biologist at Nanyang Technological University Singapore, said the findings could help understand the factors that drive the molecular changes at the ages of 44 and 60.
“If we can find the drivers of these changes, we may even be able to find ways to slow or even reverse the drivers of the aging at these two time points,” Xiaotao told The Washington Post.