Surprising study Your body ages radically in these two phases of life
There are phases in life in which the body ages rapidly: The ageing process takes real leaps and bounds, as a US study shows. Not only senior citizens are affected.
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- If you've ever had the feeling that everything in your body is "falling apart" all at once, then it may not be your imagination.
- A research team from Stanford has discovered that the body ages particularly quickly in two phases of life.
- People in their early 60s and a significantly younger age group who are under a lot of stress are affected.
Time itself progresses in fairly predictable steps. Biological ageing, on the other hand, cannot necessarily be relied upon: ageing is certainly not constant, as a study by a research group at Stanford University (USA) revealed. According to the study, it is quite possible to feel older from one day to the next.
The ageing process is not continuous, according to the study, which was published in the journal "Nature Aging". Rather, there are two phases of "concentrated ageing": periods in which the body ages radically.
"Not only do we change gradually over time, but there are some really dramatic changes," Dr. Michael Snyder, Professor of Genetics and lead author of the study, is quoted as saying in a statement from his faculty. On average, drastic transformation processes can be observed at the ages of 44 and 60, which cause the body to age noticeably. The ageing spurt in our mid-40s came as a surprise to the researchers.
Molecules change
For the study, the research team analyzed data from 108 people. The men and women aged between 25 and 75 regularly donated blood and other samples over a period of several years, which the researchers analyzed for the number and composition of different types of molecules and microbes.
The analysis yielded surprising results. The scientists found that the number and structure of 81 percent of the molecules and microbes examined showed irregular fluctuations and changed more in certain age groups than at other times.
When searching for molecule clusters with the greatest changes in quantity, they found that these changes occurred most strongly in two periods: Precisely when people were in their mid-forties and early sixties - and regardless of gender.
Stressful phase of life
The fact that men and women are equally affected "suggests that menopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, but that there are probably other, more important factors," says co-author Xiaotao Shen.
In the mid-forties, the molecules associated with alcohol, caffeine and fat metabolism in particular showed changes. In people in their early 60s, carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, immune regulation and kidney function were affected.
The study acknowledges that some of these changes may be related to lifestyle or behavioral factors that are more common in the affected age groups and are not necessarily due to biological factors. For example, an alcohol metabolism disorder could result from an increase in alcohol consumption in the mid-40s: an often stressful phase of life.