A team of scientists who studied people aged 25 to 75 shared the two exact points in later life where the ageing process really starts to pick up speed.
Obviously, some of the most dramatic developments occur during your childhood, as in the span of a few years you grow from a gurgling flesh potato into a walking, talking creature capable of complex thought.
However, all good things must come to an end as in later decades of life, that body which had grown with such vitality inevitably goes off a bit as the ageing process noticeably sinks its teeth in.
For those who want to know exactly which milestones in life see this process dramatically spike, then a study from last year has the answers you seek.
Advert
It turns out that when you get to the age of around 44 and 60, your body gets somewhat older than it used to be.
They studied molecules in the blood, skin and faeces (yuck) to measure how they changed over time and made the fascinating discovery that the ageing process wasn't a steady procession.
Rather than changing gradually, most molecules of the 135,000 studied found the two dramatic changes in the mid-40s and at 60, with the first big shift being a particular surprise.
The scientists had expected to see it in women and reckoned it would have been due to perimenopausal changes, but they also found this sudden change in men.
Dr Xiaotao Shen of Nanyang Technological University Singapore, one of the authors of the study, said: "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."
The first changes at 44 were particularly connected to cardiovascular disease and metabolising of caffeine, alcohol and lipids, which are oils and fats.
The second bunch of changes affected the immune system, the kidneys and metabolising carbs, while during both times molecules connected to skin and muscle ageing were affected.
These findings may help explain why the risk of certain illnesses appears to increase sharply after 60, and there may be a third ageing spike at 78 but since the participants were 75 at the oldest this was not measured.
“We’re not just changing gradually over time. There are some really dramatic changes,” Professor Michael Snyder, geneticist and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University and senior author of the study, told the Guardian.
“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.
“I’m a big believer that we should try to adjust our lifestyles while we’re still healthy.”
He recommended some things you could do to counteract these sudden spikes in age, and as you can probably guess it involves eating well and getting the right amount of exercise.
Joe Harker