I’ve read about this a few times now… does it correlate with your own experience?
If it’s ever felt like everything in your body is breaking down at once, that might not be your imagination. A new Stanford Medicine study shows that many of our molecules and microorganisms dramatically rise or fall in number during our 40s and 60s.
Researchers assessed many thousands of different molecules in people from age 25 to 75, as well as their microbiomes - the bacteria, viruses and fungi that live inside us and on our skin - and found that the abundance of most molecules and microbes do not shift in a gradual, chronological fashion. Rather, we undergo two periods of rapid change during our life span, averaging around age 44 and age 60. A paper describing these findings was published in the journal Nature Aging Aug. 14.
“We’re not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes,” said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor of genetics and the study’s senior author. “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.”
Xiaotao Shen, PhD, a former Stanford Medicine postdoctoral scholar, was the first author of the study. Shen is now an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University Singapore.
These big changes likely impact our health - the number of molecules related to cardiovascular disease showed significant changes at both time points, and those related to immune function changed in people in their early 60s.
I experienced that too @Bruce. It seemed that as soon as I turned 70 things started to change. I’ve been lucky with my health throughout my life but now I seem to have slowed down due to various aches and pains that seem to appear for no reason. I shall be 80 in eighteen months time, I wonder if that will bring anything different … probably more of the same! Ah well, onwards and upwards as my Dad used to say
Exactly the same thing happened to me as I turned seventy.
Having been a long distance endurance runner since I was 27 and being able to run steadily for up to ten hours at a time I noticed there was something wrong in 2020 (my 70th year) I was struggling to maintain a pace over a five mile route, and arrived home in a very poor state indeed, something that never used to happen.
By June 2021 I took my last proper run, and have since been unable to jog more than 200 yards without gasping for breath with tired rubber legs.
It’s called ‘Oxygen Deficit’ which means that oxygen can not be delivered to your muscles fast enough to maintain the pace you are travelling at. Frequently seen in 100 metre runners who run anaerobic…Without oxygen.
This all seemed to happen at once, as I turned seventy…
I always though that I would be able to run at some sort of a pace into my eighties because you model yourself on other runners, and I know runners who still compete at over eighty years of age. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but I will continue to walk as long as I can…(and even jog when nobody is looking) But don’t tell Mrs Fox…
Well if I’m honest I must be an inactive slothful slob because since I turned 60 I’ve began to feel my age …or more accurately become aware that I’m ageing (did that make sense?).
I’ve never been health conscious or body beautiful.
And oddly, once one bit of my body shows signs of lifestyle fatigue another part soon follows and plays up.
Bit late now to turn back the clock though.
I retired when I was 67. My work involved heavy lifting and I was still fairly fit. It was in my eighties that I first noticed a decline in my fitness. I will be 88 later this year. I have a York cross trainer in my garage which I used to spend time on but can only do about 5 minutes now. I have a 92 year old sister who is probably fitter than I am.
Conclusions: liquorice significantly improved the pulmonary function in both the lower and higher doses used in the study, however the lower dose of the extract was safe and increasing this dose resulted in a significant elevation in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and reduction in serum potassium level.
It can interfere with pharmaceuticals so if you’re on any pills check their warnings.
