Your Body Gets Much Older at These Two Ages, Study Shows

Aging doesn’t only happen gradually but also in specific bursts at about the ages of 44 and 60, according to new research.

Beginning in your early 40s, you will experience changes in lipids and alcohol metabolism while your kidney function, carbohydrate metabolism, and immune regulation decline around age 60. The researchers also noted significant changes to skin, muscle, and heart disease risk in both 40s and 60s.

The study only included 108 people in California between the ages of 25 and 75, and more research is needed to confirm the findings. However, these findings could lead to new diagnostic tests and preventative strategies for aging-related diseases.

Living for a long time isn’t necessarily linked to healthy or active old age. For most people, their average “health span”—the amount of time spent in good health—is 11–15 years shorter than their lifespan, according to Michael Snyder, PhD, a senior author of the study and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University.

“We want to extend their healthspan to be the same length, and ideally extend their lifespan a bit too,” Snyder told Verywell in an email.

Midlife Is Important for Healthy Aging

Previous studies have shown that your health at midlife, typically between the ages of 40 and 65, plays a major role in how healthy you are later in life. A 2018 study in the journal Nutrients linked specific lifestyle factors at midlife—such as having a healthy body weight, being physically active, eating a high-quality diet, and not smoking—with improved health during aging.

A 2020 report published in the journal The Lancet also showed that midlife marks an important transition period in brain health. Managing blood pressure and staying active socially, cognitively, and physically during this phase of life can help reduce future dementia risk, according to this report.

The new study adds to this growing body of research on the health span and highlights the importance of developing certain lifestyle habits earlier in life.

“Your health at 60, 70, or 80 is really determined by what you do in the decades before that,” said Kenneth Boockvar, MD, director of the Integrative Center for Aging Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the study.

It is too early to make specific recommendations based on this new study, but people who want to be healthy at 60 should start paying attention to their diet and lifestyle at ages 40 and 50, he added.

Aging Is Inevitable, but Lifestyle Changes Improve Health Span

The new study found that molecules and microbes associated with aging decline at specific points in the lifespan, but future studies are needed to determine if the same molecular changes occur in different groups of people.

“We want to profile more people across the country to see if what we observe is true for everyone—not just those in the Bay Area,” Snyder said. “And we want to analyze the difference between men and women. Women live longer, and we would like to understand why.”

Aging is inevitable, but making certain lifestyle changes can help mitigate some of the risks associated with aging-related diseases. However, many other factors, like environment, economic stability, and access to health care and education, also impact healthy aging outcomes and are not easy for individuals to control.

Snyder said people can make small lifestyle changes by staying hydrated to support kidney health, building muscle mass with weight training, and taking cholesterol medications if their LDL cholesterol is rising.

“This likely will not stop aging but will reduce the issues we observed and help extend people’s health span,” he added.