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If you want to get technical, you’ve been getting older since the day you were born. But a growing body of research has discovered that biological aging doesn’t happen at a steady pace. As a result, there are certain times in your life where your cells may age faster than others.
If it feels like you’ve suddenly developed some post-workout aches that weren’t there a year ago or that you developed grays out of nowhere, you could be going through one of these aging bursts. Naturally, it’s fair to wonder what you can do to stay healthy during this time—and maybe even work against that aging process.
Here’s what the data found about when women age, plus what doctors suggest to slow that process.
The study is just one that found aging happens at set points in life.
For the study, which was published in the journal Nature Aging, researchers analyzed the cells of 108 people between the ages of 25 and 75. They also did a deep dive into participants’ microbiomes, which are microorganisms that play an important role in your health. Most of the participants were tracked for around 1.7 years, although the maximum amount of follow-up was 6.8 years.
After looking at the data, the researchers found that most participants’ molecules and microbiomes aged in bursts. Specifically, they discovered that they went through two periods of faster aging—around age 44 and age 60. “Overall, this research demonstrates that functions and risks of aging-related diseases change non-linearly across the human lifespan,” the researchers wrote in the conclusion.
It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the only recent study to suggest that aging happens in bursts.
Research published in the journal Cell last year analyzed blood and tissue samples from 76 organ donors who were between the ages of 14 and 68 when they died. Those tissue samples were from a range of bodily systems: cardiovascular, digestive, immune, endocrine, respiratory, skin, and muscular.
Things got a little technical there, but the researchers created a catalogue of proteins from those bodily systems and analyzed how the levels of those proteins changed with age. The thought was that lower levels of the proteins suggest the cells didn’t regenerate as well as they did when the people were younger.
After crunching the data, the researchers found that the biggest aging changes happened between 45 and 55. During that time period, most of the tissues went through major changes, with the most drastic happening in the aorta—the main artery that carries blood away from the heart—as well as the pancreas and spleen.
What’s behind this accelerated aging?
It’s not entirely clear. While research suggests this is a phenomenon that happens, the exact reason for it hasn’t been uncovered yet. Still, there are a few theories.
Aging involves a few different factors, including your genes and lifestyle factors, Bert Mandelbaum, MD, co-director of the Regenerative Orthobiologic Center at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics in Los Angeles, tells SELF. “Genes are set up beautifully to have a certain capacity, and then they’re stimulated through a variety of lifestyle factors,” he says. Meaning, you have a baseline level of health due to your genes, but you can influence them with the way you behave.
“We get these same genes to perform and adapt in a way that can positively or negatively impact the pace of aging,” Dr. Mandelbaum says.
But we’ve already known to some degree that aging happens in clusters, John Fudyma, MD, former Interim division chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at University at Buffalo, tells SELF. “The most common and well-known ones happen in childhood and puberty,” he points out. Accelerated aging in your mid-40s and 60s may simply be another lifestyle phase like that, he says.
For women in particular, accelerated aging around 44 and 60 could be linked to the menopausal transition and changing hormones, Melissa Batchelor, PhD, director of the Center for Aging, Health and Humanities at the George Washington University School of Nursing, tells SELF. “Aging is always happening but, by this time, you’re starting to go through hormonal shifts,” she says. “Your muscle mass and metabolism starts to decline.” These shifts can make aging more noticeable than at other points in your life, she says.
“Think of aging less like a slow leak and more like a tire that blows—things can look fine and then shift dramatically,” Dr. Batchelor says. “Our biology isn’t on a smooth downward slope, it moves in waves. And the good news is that knowing where those waves are gives us a real opportunity to get ahead of them.”
Of course, there’s a lot of variation here. Dr. Fudyma says people who have unhealthy lifestyle habits like heavy drinking, smoking, and lack of exercise, tend to develop chronic diseases and other symptoms of aging sooner than their healthier counterparts. As a result, they may seem older than their chronological age, he says.
There are a few things you can do.
Again, everyone is aging, all of the time. But doctors stress that doing what you can to lead a healthy lifestyle may help smooth out those accelerated aging phases—and none of them are shocking.
“These two windows—your mid-40s and early 60s—are times when your body is undergoing some of its most significant molecular change,” Dr. Batchelor says. “That’s not a reason to panic; It’s a reason to be proactive. Think of it like knowing a storm is coming: You don’t wait until the roof is leaking to check the gutters.”
That means doing things like eating a varied, plant-heavy diet, exercising regularly, trying to maintain a healthy weight, avoiding smoking, minimizing your alcohol use, and trying to manage your blood pressure and blood glucose levels, Dr. Mandelbaum says.
“If you’re smoking, not exercising, and have uncontrolled diabetes, you turn those genes the wrong way,” he says. “But if you’re exercising every day, following a diet like the Mediterranean diet, watching your blood sugar, and socializing regularly, you can positively influence those same genes.”
While you’re at it, try to lift weights, too. “Make sure you’re doing strength training,” Dr. Batchelor says. “Strength training is not a message that most older women got when they were in their 20s, but it’s really important as hormones and muscle mass changes.”
While you can’t slow down time, Dr. Mandelbaum recommends doing what you can to be as healthy as possible. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link,” he says. “You have to have a concerted, comprehensive approach. Your system is responsive to the good or bad you give it.”
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Originally Appeared on Self