I've got bad news if you're 43 or 59 and reading this post...
August 15, 2024 5:28 AM Subscribe
Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60 - suggesting ageing is not a slow and steady process, which could explain spikes in health issues at certain ages. From Nature Aging: Nonlinear dynamics of multi-omics profiles during human aging.
Not to freak anyone out, but I was 43 when my body totally collapsed and decided to give me stage 4 cancer. I got over it! But this does not have me super excited for 60 -- which, honestly, I was already not super excited about (I have a way to go yet).
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:32 AM on August 15 [11 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:32 AM on August 15 [11 favorites]
There are obvious limitations to the study - sample size, duration, pre-existing conditions, etc. - but it's an interesting finding and should prompt additional research.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:34 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:34 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
I turned 60 4 days ago. Harrumph.
posted by whatevernot at 5:34 AM on August 15 [11 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 5:34 AM on August 15 [11 favorites]
To quote a reddit post on the same article:
Study can't differentiate between inherent changes adaptation resulting from lifestyle changes
Study is small. Only 108 individuals total. Only 8 between 25 and 40
Study lasted a little less than two years. The observed changes are not within individuals but by comparing different individuals of different ages
Study tested only blood samples. Can't differentiate tissue specific changes
Previous studies using different instruments by same author had estimated changes at 34
posted by Silentgoldfish at 5:40 AM on August 15 [32 favorites]
Study can't differentiate between inherent changes adaptation resulting from lifestyle changes
Study is small. Only 108 individuals total. Only 8 between 25 and 40
Study lasted a little less than two years. The observed changes are not within individuals but by comparing different individuals of different ages
Study tested only blood samples. Can't differentiate tissue specific changes
Previous studies using different instruments by same author had estimated changes at 34
posted by Silentgoldfish at 5:40 AM on August 15 [32 favorites]
This would be interesting if it was a multi-decade, multi-cohort study but this ... is not interesting.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:44 AM on August 15 [6 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:44 AM on August 15 [6 favorites]
I did not have any kind of collapse at age 44-45.
Of course a few months before I turned 50, my eyesight went all to hell. It was from “my optometrist is surprised I can still read the small print” at 49.5, then at 49.8-ish overnight was “huh I am trying on reading glasses at the store”
posted by caution live frogs at 5:57 AM on August 15 [5 favorites]
Of course a few months before I turned 50, my eyesight went all to hell. It was from “my optometrist is surprised I can still read the small print” at 49.5, then at 49.8-ish overnight was “huh I am trying on reading glasses at the store”
posted by caution live frogs at 5:57 AM on August 15 [5 favorites]
this ... is not interesting
I dunno -- it sort of fits with my experiences and those of my friends and family. Not on the exact date, and not as an unavoidable destiny, but significant changes that had to be dealt with seriously.
It would be interesting to see a more comprehensive study and more research into why it could/would work like that.
posted by mumimor at 5:58 AM on August 15 [3 favorites]
I dunno -- it sort of fits with my experiences and those of my friends and family. Not on the exact date, and not as an unavoidable destiny, but significant changes that had to be dealt with seriously.
It would be interesting to see a more comprehensive study and more research into why it could/would work like that.
posted by mumimor at 5:58 AM on August 15 [3 favorites]
I will say that my mother turned 60, and within a week had developed breast cancer, spinal stenosis, and vestibular migraine. So yeah...hoping personally not to make it that far! But 44 was a nothingburger, it's 47 where my body decided to hang the I'm Not Interested sign on basically everything I was accustomed to it doing and being.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:15 AM on August 15 [6 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:15 AM on August 15 [6 favorites]
(yes the specific ages thing seems unconvincing generally but nothing seems remotely surprising to me about the observation that people age extremely slowly and then all at once; that has been the case for just about anyone I've ever observed in their middle and old age. In the last three years all of my friends on social media went from looking "30, but with a couple more lines" to "who's that literally very old man on my feed...oh, it's my college roommate.")
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:18 AM on August 15 [18 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:18 AM on August 15 [18 favorites]
I mean, my health suddenly and completely collapsed without warning when I was aged 34/aged 35, so...
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:20 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:20 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Ha! Just went to renew my alumna ID at my old university. The clerk asked me if I wanted to use my old picture from when I was 63. I am 73 now. That photo from 63 would not serve to identify me in any meaningful way.. Maybe in the iOS facial recognition way, yeah.
Also, there's a reason my best results as a master's athlete were in the years I had just qualified for a new age category :)
posted by Peach at 6:24 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
Also, there's a reason my best results as a master's athlete were in the years I had just qualified for a new age category :)
posted by Peach at 6:24 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
It's anecdata, but at 41 I had a heart attack and needed quadruple bypass surgery. Now I'm 12 days out from my 61st birthday, and this was definitely the year I turned into an old man. So, there you go.
posted by briank at 6:29 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
posted by briank at 6:29 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
I often refer to 45 as the age when the warranty on my body expired. It was also 2020 and ... (waves at COVID and working on political tech to help Joe Biden get elected and getting my citizenship and ...) I was undergoing a fair amount of stress. But 45 was the age when every visit to the doctor turned up some new "oh, that's interesting" surprise. Elevated iron levels in the blood. Gout flares. Pre diabetic blood sugar. Then, at 47, I got COVID and having that interact with my asthma has been a multi-year fitness hole that I have yet to dig out of.
I'm getting ready to turn 50 this year, and was looking at photos of myself from 38 and 40, and there is a deep part of me that misses that body and plans to try to get back to it, but it's a lot more work now than it used to be; but this article prompts me to get better before I hit 60.
posted by bl1nk at 6:30 AM on August 15 [9 favorites]
I'm getting ready to turn 50 this year, and was looking at photos of myself from 38 and 40, and there is a deep part of me that misses that body and plans to try to get back to it, but it's a lot more work now than it used to be; but this article prompts me to get better before I hit 60.
posted by bl1nk at 6:30 AM on August 15 [9 favorites]
I'm 48 and don't feel appreciably different from when I was 41, aside from being balder. My skin is the same, I'm in better cardiovascular shape than I was then and I'm maintaining my ideal target weight. So I'm guessing these target ages vary by person, with averages at 44 and 60. The shoe will eventually drop, but for now it still dangles.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:35 AM on August 15 [2 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:35 AM on August 15 [2 favorites]
Of course a few months before I turned 50, my eyesight went all to hell. It was from “my optometrist is surprised I can still read the small print” at 49.5, then at 49.8-ish overnight was “huh I am trying on reading glasses at the store”
In my 20s, I once woke up to a change in eyesight so sudden and severe that I went right to my optometrist as soon as I could. Apparently that sort of thing can happen at any age.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:36 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
In my 20s, I once woke up to a change in eyesight so sudden and severe that I went right to my optometrist as soon as I could. Apparently that sort of thing can happen at any age.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:36 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
this ... is not interesting
. . .
It would be interesting to see a more comprehensive study and more research
https://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/
posted by HearHere at 6:51 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
. . .
It would be interesting to see a more comprehensive study and more research
https://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/
posted by HearHere at 6:51 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Anecdotally rings true for me too, though I had attributed my body falling apart at 44 to a sedentary lifestyle and lousy diet. But I guess it was just fate. /s
The conclusion I’ve been resisting for a year or so is that it’s just going to take a lot more effort than it used to if I want to feel healthy.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:36 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
The conclusion I’ve been resisting for a year or so is that it’s just going to take a lot more effort than it used to if I want to feel healthy.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:36 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
The ages don't work quite right for me personally, but I did suddenly wake up one day in my later 40s and discover that my face didn't look the same in the mirror, but I couldn't tell why., exactly. Then a few years later, I lost a few pounds and my face decided it was time to let gravity have its way. I went from coworkers telling me they didn't believe I was in my 40s to absolutely looking every minute of my age.
Healthwise, though - I've got some chronic stuff going on so I see the doctor routinely, and there have been no dramatic discoveries as of yet, unless you count the breast biopsy that turned out to be routine calcifications. Knock wood things continue in this way for a while longer.
posted by PussKillian at 7:46 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Healthwise, though - I've got some chronic stuff going on so I see the doctor routinely, and there have been no dramatic discoveries as of yet, unless you count the breast biopsy that turned out to be routine calcifications. Knock wood things continue in this way for a while longer.
posted by PussKillian at 7:46 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
I have to say, I just got shittier-feeling the deeper I got into my 60s. I’m 66 now, and it’s miserable. Nothing major, mind you. Just this nagging mediocre feeling with no real cause.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:49 AM on August 15 [3 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 7:49 AM on August 15 [3 favorites]
There might be an earlier one too -- I feel like the warranty ran out at about age 30. There's definitely a transition from "can party all day and stay up late and then sleep on a bare floor with a t-shirt for a pillow and be OK the next day" to "I slept wrong in my memory foam bed with an array of comfy pillows and blankets, and now I need physical therapy."
posted by Foosnark at 8:02 AM on August 15 [7 favorites]
posted by Foosnark at 8:02 AM on August 15 [7 favorites]
I'm laughing thinking about the side-by-side apparent age comparison of Kamala Harris (59) and Tim Walz (60) with this in mind.
...because I'm 43 for another two months and don't want to think about that at all this morning.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:13 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
...because I'm 43 for another two months and don't want to think about that at all this morning.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:13 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Speaking as a not very observant person, it seemed like people didn't change all that much from about 25 to 45 or so, and then they stared looking older. This may also be when young people started looking younger.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 8:20 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 8:20 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
I have been saying this for YEARS. I worked in an office in my 20s where many people were in their late 30s. I was there for almost a decade and I saw everyone of them… suddenly age. It was like the aging program got turned on in the body and they suddenly aged 10+ years over the course of a few months. Except for this one dude who looked forever 36 well into his late 50s…. We all said he should be studied because that man did. Not. Age.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:25 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:25 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Oh great, I turn 44 this fall.
Seriosuly though, it feels like I've stayed in okay health (knock on wood), definitely starting to look a bit middle-aged dad bod but still feel like I'm in my mid-30s. My biggest concern (and what has left me feeling kinda stressed and worn out) is how everything life-wise seems to pile up all at once. Our parents are rapidly reaching need-additional-assistance levels of care while we live half a world away from them and we are also rapidly realizing we are not very well prepared for the crippling cost of getting old in America. Oh, and it's sinking in more and more that I have only so many years left to do everything I want, particularly more physically challenging things like long-distance hikes, travel, etc. All the above, combined with various other career and personal issues, have left me feeling like a giant ball of stress the past year or so with no relief on the horizon.
Guess my point is that I wonder how much of that could be due to physical manifestations of the various shittiness and stressors that a lot of people start encountering at those ages.
posted by photo guy at 8:54 AM on August 15 [3 favorites]
Seriosuly though, it feels like I've stayed in okay health (knock on wood), definitely starting to look a bit middle-aged dad bod but still feel like I'm in my mid-30s. My biggest concern (and what has left me feeling kinda stressed and worn out) is how everything life-wise seems to pile up all at once. Our parents are rapidly reaching need-additional-assistance levels of care while we live half a world away from them and we are also rapidly realizing we are not very well prepared for the crippling cost of getting old in America. Oh, and it's sinking in more and more that I have only so many years left to do everything I want, particularly more physically challenging things like long-distance hikes, travel, etc. All the above, combined with various other career and personal issues, have left me feeling like a giant ball of stress the past year or so with no relief on the horizon.
Guess my point is that I wonder how much of that could be due to physical manifestations of the various shittiness and stressors that a lot of people start encountering at those ages.
posted by photo guy at 8:54 AM on August 15 [3 favorites]
My mom is 79 and does yoga 4 times per week and recently, when someone slightly younger than her went on about how getting older is so terrible, gave me this look that said "I honestly don't know what they're talking about." She's always taken really good care of herself, though, and always exercised. So it is likely a combination of that and genetics. Anyway, I hope I mostly got her genes in the aging department.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:57 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:57 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
Now, on the more optimistic side of things (at least for folks on the brink of 44), there's the recent internet discussion of how Millennials are aging better than not just previous generations, but better than Gen Z as well. (The linked article, from March of this year, gives the current age-range of Millennials as 28-43, FWIW.) The best theory I've come across for why that might be true (if it is true, of course - as far as I know this has not been studied in any quantifiable way) is sunscreen. Millennials grew up taking sunscreen seriously, and even had a hit song about it addressed to the first class of us to be graduating from high school. Gen X didn't grow up with this quite as much, and Gen Z doesn't take it seriously and/or has bitten down on conspiracy theories about it, and so Millennials have gotten more benefits from sunscreen than any other generation.
But all of this is, of course, spitballing based on anecdata. But if those of us in my cohort are in fact aging better than our past and future counterparts, I guess we're about to see how that plays out when the mid-forties spurt lands upon us.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:06 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
But all of this is, of course, spitballing based on anecdata. But if those of us in my cohort are in fact aging better than our past and future counterparts, I guess we're about to see how that plays out when the mid-forties spurt lands upon us.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:06 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Gen X didn't grow up with this quite as much, and Gen Z doesn't take it seriously and/or has bitten down on conspiracy theories about it, and so Millennials have gotten more benefits from sunscreen than any other generation.
Suncreen used to be much worse than it is now. Of course, gen-x wasn't slathering ourselves in cooking oil (literall) like boomers were for a golden glow. And less smoking. If you want to stay younger looking, sunscreen and don't smoke.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:09 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
Suncreen used to be much worse than it is now. Of course, gen-x wasn't slathering ourselves in cooking oil (literall) like boomers were for a golden glow. And less smoking. If you want to stay younger looking, sunscreen and don't smoke.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:09 AM on August 15 [4 favorites]
Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60
So, um, obviously there's a third burst. We call it puberty. I guess they don't mention that because it's an aging burst towards maturity rather than decrepitude.
That there are bursts of scheduled bodily changes isn't surprising (as I just said, there's one which is quite obvious; why not more less conspicuous ones?), but the schedule is probably a lot more spread out than they say (comparing again to adolescence, the cluster of bodily changes associated with it have onsets plausibly between 10 and 15, and can end as late as the early 20s; the ends of those ranges are rare but not vanishingly so).
posted by jackbishop at 9:22 AM on August 15 [2 favorites]
So, um, obviously there's a third burst. We call it puberty. I guess they don't mention that because it's an aging burst towards maturity rather than decrepitude.
That there are bursts of scheduled bodily changes isn't surprising (as I just said, there's one which is quite obvious; why not more less conspicuous ones?), but the schedule is probably a lot more spread out than they say (comparing again to adolescence, the cluster of bodily changes associated with it have onsets plausibly between 10 and 15, and can end as late as the early 20s; the ends of those ranges are rare but not vanishingly so).
posted by jackbishop at 9:22 AM on August 15 [2 favorites]
nothing seems remotely surprising to me about the observation that people age extremely slowly and then all at once
The basic pattern that mortality increases approximately exponentially with age from around 20 is well established, because actuaries exist. If you include “natural causes” only, the curve is even more consistent from adolescence, or that’s what the version I linked says. The premise that this trend applies to most of the individual things that go wrong with age would seem to explain the “slowly, then all at once” impression a little more parsimoniously.
posted by atoxyl at 10:00 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
The basic pattern that mortality increases approximately exponentially with age from around 20 is well established, because actuaries exist. If you include “natural causes” only, the curve is even more consistent from adolescence, or that’s what the version I linked says. The premise that this trend applies to most of the individual things that go wrong with age would seem to explain the “slowly, then all at once” impression a little more parsimoniously.
posted by atoxyl at 10:00 AM on August 15 [1 favorite]
I turned 44 in 2016, but it wasn't my body that went through a total and sudden collapse. I shudder to think what will happen in 8 more years...
posted by rikschell at 10:06 AM on August 15
posted by rikschell at 10:06 AM on August 15
I aged in two bursts -- one after I tried to recover the Ark of the Covenant from a truck convoy, and the second after I escaped a Nazi-occupied castle with my dad.
posted by credulous at 10:57 AM on August 15 [16 favorites]
posted by credulous at 10:57 AM on August 15 [16 favorites]
It's not the years, it's the mileage!
posted by TwoWordReview at 12:02 PM on August 15 [3 favorites]
posted by TwoWordReview at 12:02 PM on August 15 [3 favorites]
I believe it because I'm living it right now. Aargh. But given the small size of the study I think we have to swallow several large grains of salt with it. For example, maybe aging does tend to happen in rather quick bursts, but maybe the ages are not as specific as he currently believes. Also maybe it is not simply age per se but age combined with disease or certain types of disease. And so on.
posted by flug at 12:45 PM on August 15
posted by flug at 12:45 PM on August 15
Sixty in 10 days.
posted by kikaider01 at 12:50 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
posted by kikaider01 at 12:50 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Wow, you aged fast!!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:06 PM on August 15 [7 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:06 PM on August 15 [7 favorites]
Huh, they didn't seem to control for having kids. Note per previous discussion that I'm not against having kids at all. But anecdotally, my friends (of all genders) who have had kids definitely seem to be aging faster in general as we arrive in our forties than my friends who haven't, and the forties are prime time for differences caused by that to emerge. It seems like a big potential confounding factor, albeit perhaps an unpopular one to mention.
Is it worrying more that does it? Is it not getting enough sleep? Is it just expending more energy carrying kids around and doing all the other things that come with being a parent? I don't know, but I think about it a fair bit, and it would be really interesting to see studies about it. I believe aging also hits people harder when they're dealing with disability, from something I recall reading years ago. Of course, at least two-thirds of us will experience some kind of disability as we age, so this feels rather chicken-and-egg.
Also, I wonder if age 60 corresponds with anything else, such as menopause-related changes among a lot of women. Like maybe there are specific hormone changes that fuel aging at that point.
posted by limeonaire at 2:11 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Is it worrying more that does it? Is it not getting enough sleep? Is it just expending more energy carrying kids around and doing all the other things that come with being a parent? I don't know, but I think about it a fair bit, and it would be really interesting to see studies about it. I believe aging also hits people harder when they're dealing with disability, from something I recall reading years ago. Of course, at least two-thirds of us will experience some kind of disability as we age, so this feels rather chicken-and-egg.
Also, I wonder if age 60 corresponds with anything else, such as menopause-related changes among a lot of women. Like maybe there are specific hormone changes that fuel aging at that point.
posted by limeonaire at 2:11 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
I mean, my health suddenly and completely collapsed without warning when I was aged 34/aged 35, so...
Yeah, that was exactly the time when my metabolism said "ok, I'm done now, you're going to be fat from now on."
posted by Melismata at 2:42 PM on August 15
Yeah, that was exactly the time when my metabolism said "ok, I'm done now, you're going to be fat from now on."
posted by Melismata at 2:42 PM on August 15
*Laughs in menopause*
posted by ninazer0 at 5:23 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]
posted by ninazer0 at 5:23 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]
What about that thing that happens to a lot of people in their mid-twenties where they suddenly put on weight, lose hair, etc.? It was maybe a quarter of my peer group, and I’ve watched it happen since with a group of younger friends.
Now halfway through 45 I definitely feel like I aged more rapidly in the last year or so, but a lot of it seems directly related to WFH all summer.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:53 PM on August 15
Now halfway through 45 I definitely feel like I aged more rapidly in the last year or so, but a lot of it seems directly related to WFH all summer.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:53 PM on August 15
Is it not getting enough sleep?
Yes. Also elevated stress, I think. I got shingles during our eldest’s first 6 months, which I attribute to being so tired long-dormant viruses were able to easily overwhelm my body and f me up. I was already slightly graying in the beard but 3 kids and a pandemic later and I’m basically in Santa territory now.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:54 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Yes. Also elevated stress, I think. I got shingles during our eldest’s first 6 months, which I attribute to being so tired long-dormant viruses were able to easily overwhelm my body and f me up. I was already slightly graying in the beard but 3 kids and a pandemic later and I’m basically in Santa territory now.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:54 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
Huh, they didn't seem to control for having kids.
This was my experience. My child was born when I was 40. At the time, I looked like I was in my mid-late 20s, and was still very regularly getting carded to buy alcohol. I'm now 50 and look... a lot closer to 50 than 40.
posted by toxic at 9:01 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]
This was my experience. My child was born when I was 40. At the time, I looked like I was in my mid-late 20s, and was still very regularly getting carded to buy alcohol. I'm now 50 and look... a lot closer to 50 than 40.
posted by toxic at 9:01 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]
I’m 43 now but I’m pretty sure I’ve done my aging in the last 8 years since having kids. I just compared a photo of myself from 7 years ago, and yeah, I totally went from a few stray grays to basically a white beard in that time. None of my kids were good sleepers so I definitely attribute it to the lack of sleep.
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:58 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:58 PM on August 15 [1 favorite]
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posted by taquito sunrise at 5:31 AM on August 15 [7 favorites]