Scientists Say There’s One Decade Of Your Life That Matters More For Your Overall Health Than Any Other
NDAB Creativity | Shutterstock Making good decisions for your health is important at any age, but it sounds like scientists have actually discovered one particular decade to be the most important for your overall health. While your choices always matter, they matter a bit more from 36 to 46.
This doesn’t mean you can just slack off and neglect your health for the rest of your life. However, it does mean you should probably pay special attention to this specific decade. Some people have already passed through it and can attest to how vital it is, while others may be approaching it or even in the middle of it, and can work to make real changes that will affect them for the rest of their lives.
Scientists say the decade between the ages of 36 and 46 matters most for your health.
That’s according to a study published in Annals of Medicine in 2025. Dan Go, who describes himself as a “high-performance health coach,” shared the interesting findings in an Instagram reel. “Scientists tracked hundreds of people for decades, and what they found is the habits between 36 and 46 [matter] more than any decade for your future health,” he explained.
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This was based on the results of a Finnish health study that began tracking 369 participants who were born in 1959 in the year 1968. Researchers involved in the study checked in with the participants at the ages of 27, 36, 42, 50, and 61 to determine what their health was like. The study mainly focused on the impacts of smoking, drinking alcohol, and not being physically active.
You might expect that these people’s health would show the most pronounced changes at the oldest age of 61, but that actually wasn’t the case. Instead, Go said that the habits you pick up during this decade stick with you throughout your life.
It’s important to be mindful of your health while you are still young.
36 is still young, though it may not seem that way to people even younger. It would be easy to think that when you’re 36, you have more time to establish healthy routines. Scientists said it’s actually never too early to consider this, though.
“The results of the present study indicate that interventions should target young adults to promote healthy behaviors and prevent the accumulation of risky behaviors over adulthood,” they said in the study. They noted that it’s harder to break bad habits once you grow older, so the best option is to do so at a younger age.
Of course, much of the focus of the study was on how these risky behaviors can continue to impact you later in life after participating in them from ages 36 to 46, but this decade isn’t all about doom and gloom. Go explained that taking on healthier habits during this period “will transform your entire health trajectory.”
Other research supports developing a healthy lifestyle in midlife.
While the Finnish study may be the first of its kind to examine the specific decade that occurs between the ages of 36 and 46, other studies also underscore the importance of healthy habits during midlife.
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For example, a 2020 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health concluded that sticking to healthy habits when you’re middle-aged gives you a better chance at avoiding type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Similarly, a 2007 study published in The American Journal of Medicine found that making healthy lifestyle changes in midlife decreased the chance of heart disease and mortality.
It’s not possible for anyone to make perfectly healthy choices all of the time, even between 36 and 46. However, putting a special focus on this decade of your life and making sure you take care of your body as well as you possibly can will really make a difference. Those 10 short years can majorly affect the kind of health you have in later decades of life.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
