Timing, we learn again, is everything. A new study, using data from more than 6,400 subjects who ranged in age from 8 days to 95 years, suggests that much of what we knew about the natural changes of our metabolism is wrong. Then what’s right?
The New York Times reports that the researchers (more than 80 co-authors- yikes!) found that our metabolism generally goes through four distinct life phases. There’s a newborn metabolism, which coincidentally, is similar to that of adults; there’s the metabolism of infants between nine and 15 months, which is much faster than that of adults; then, by the age of two, metabolism takes a downward path until the age of 20, when it remains the same for about 40 years. From the age of 60 on, there is an unsurprising and steady decline.
It’s an interesting study and at this point non actionable. In fact, one researcher warns that an artificial speeding of an aging metabolism may also speed general decline. Your metabolism is what it is.