I recently shared with my primary physician during my annual physical that it seems to me like once the body starts breaking down everything slowly starts falling apart. I told him it felt like an older used car - how once the used car starts to break down and one system fails that this leads to another system failure, so on and so forth.
Surprisingly, he did not agree with my view, so I'm not sure what the answer is. But, for my middle-aged body it definitely feels like one step forward two steps back; unfortunately, not a misstatement.