Researchers pinpoint what age your unhealthy habits catch up with you

Ah Youth! It was a glorious time when you could eat a few cheeseburgers without thinking about calories or party all night and still be bright-eyed for work the next morning.

Your 20s were a great time for debauchery, but now you're edging your 40s, and those bad habits have caught up with you.

Researchers have pinpointed the exact age you start to feel those behaviors' mess with you, and it's sooner than you think. Thirty-Six.

That's the magic number where smoking, drinking, not exercising, and bad diet start to affect your health.

For the study, scientists tracked the health of hundreds of children born in 1959 until they were 61.

If their younger years were filled with smoking, booze, and laziness, their health began to crucially decline at 36 years, and they were more likely to be sicker and depressed later in life.

Researchers explain 'Our findings highlight the importance of tackling risky health behaviours as early as possible to prevent damage from building up over the years."

However, it's not all doom and gloom. They add, "It is never too late to change to healthier habits. Adopting healthier habits in midlife also has benefits for older age."

Feature image by Andrea Piacquadio via pexels