Yes, everything does go wrong after 40 — but you CAN fight back

From insomnia to exercise injuries and worse hangovers, ANTONIA HOYLE has suffered them all. Now she reveals . . .

RUNNING last month, I felt a familiar twinge. Seconds later, a pain ripped through my right calf and I stumbled to a halt, frustrated.

For decades I could sprint 200 metres or run six miles several times a week with barely an aching muscle to show for it. But since turning 40 last June, scarcely a month has passed without me sustaining an injury.

I’ve pulled both calf muscles several times; the Achilles tendon in my heel, which caused pain for months; and I’ve pulled muscles in my upper back while doing weights.

But as I have learnt, torn muscles aren’t the only unwelcome physiological change after 40. My upper back hurts, my sleep is increasingly broken and hangovers feel brutal. I’m often exhausted, my feet hurt and my mood switches from sunny to murderous in seconds.

After decades of taking my health for granted, I suddenly feel more fragile.

I’m not alone in this realisation, however. Research last month by vitamin company Healthspan revealed that at around 40, most of us realise our body no longer functions as well as it used to.

Respondents to its poll of 2,000 adults reported their knees start to hurt after 40, their backs started to ‘go’ at 44, while by their late-40s three-quarters of people said they suffered joint pain daily.

ONLY 55 per cent saw a doctor and nor have I, accepting on some level, perhaps, that such changes are inevitable at 41. Also, as a working mother of two small children, I don’t have much spare time and don’t think these health niggles warrant a visit to the GP.

Experts aren’t surprised by this trend in health decline from 40.

‘From experience, I’ve realised that the body doesn’t bounce back as quickly over 40,’ says Valentina Roffi, a physiotherapist at Sprint Physiotherapy in Kensington, West london.

‘Niggles set people back and health and fitness levels can decline — to get the results we had in our 20s after the age of 40, we need to put in more effort.’

So what causes these post-40 health niggles, and how best can we counter them? I asked the experts . . .