Science Says We Age in Spikes—Here’s How To Slow Them Down

Aging is an inevitable process, right? It’s long been thought of as slow, steady, and linear—but research suggests it happens in bursts. At least two. So if you’ve ever felt like you’ve gained a few new creases or wrinkles seemingly overnight, experience a hangover much, much worse than your last, or your knees are suddenly more achy and rickety, you could be riding one of these dramatic, accelerated spikes. How we age, and how it impacts our bodies, is getting a total rethink.

In 2024, scientists at Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore published their findings in Nature Aging . Here, they outlined the data gleaned from 108 participants between the ages of 25 and 75, who they followed over several years to closely observe aging on a molecular leve