Results from a new study by a team at Stanford University have revealed that aging is not a slow and steady process. This finding helps explain the sudden spikes in health issues that occur at certain points in life.
If you’ve unexpectedly noticed an unusual accumulation of wrinkles on your face or felt like you aged overnight, there’s a scientific explanation for that. Researchers have demonstrated that aging accelerates sharply at two distinct stages of life, as reported by The Guardian.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
The university team analyzed health data from 108 volunteers aged 25 to 75. Every few months, over a period ranging from one to nearly seven years, participants provided blood and stool samples, as well as swabs from their skin, mouth, and nose. During the study, scientists evaluated 135,000 different molecules (RNA, proteins, and metabolites) and microbes (bacteria, viruses, and fungi residing in the participants’ guts and on their skin).
Most molecules and bacteria did not change gradually in chronological order. When researchers looked for clusters of molecules with the most significant shifts, they found that these transformations occurred at specific stages of life.
Overall, the analysis indicated that two major waves of age-related changes occur at ages 44 and 60. These findings may explain why certain health issues, particularly musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases, tend to spike at specific ages.
“We don’t just change gradually over time. There are some truly radical changes. It turns out that the mid-40s and early 60s are times of significant transformation, regardless of which class of molecules we are examining,” noted Professor Michael Snyder, the senior author of the study, a geneticist, and director of the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine.
What Changes Are We Talking About?
The surge in aging during the mid-40s came as a surprise to researchers. Initially, they expected that age-related transformations would be driven by perimenopausal changes in women. However, the data showed that these shifts also affect men of the same age.
“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women around 45, there are likely other, more significant factors affecting both men and women,” explained Dr. Xiaotao Shen, the lead author of the study from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
The first wave of changes involved molecules associated with cardiovascular diseases and the ability to metabolize caffeine, alcohol, and lipids. The second wave affected molecules involved in immune regulation, carbohydrate metabolism, and kidney function. Molecules related to skin and muscle aging changed during both phases of accelerated aging.
These observations align with previous research indicating that some changes may correlate with lifestyle or behavioral factors. For instance, the alteration in alcohol metabolism could be a result of increased consumption during the stressful mid-40s.
The authors believe that the results of this study could aid in developing anti-aging interventions, such as increasing physical activity during periods of rapid muscle mass loss. “I am convinced that we need to adjust our lifestyle while we are still healthy,” said Professor Snyder.
The findings from this research were published in the journal Nature Aging.