The latestโ€”and likely most convincingโ€”reason to end the anti-aging obsession once and for all? Itโ€™s literally (scientifically speaking) impossible. And trying to stay young forever could actually be really, really bad for your body.

In new researchย thatย examinedย anti-aging efforts, scientistsย found halting the process justย doesnโ€™t work, no matter how hard you try. โ€œAging is mathematically inevitableโ€”like, seriously inevitable. Thereโ€™s logically, theoretically, mathematically no way out,โ€ said Joanna Masel, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, in a press release.

Stillย clinging to hope that despite all logic, theย fountain of youth is still out there, just waiting to be found? After digging deeper into the topic of anti-aging, researchers found itโ€™s possible to eliminate poorly performing cells thatย lose function with age (leading to effects like diminished hair color or hair loss) in favor of keeping only superpowered, high-functioning cells. But,ย thereโ€™s a major downfall: The high-functioning cells are linked toย cancer.

โ€œAs you age, most of your cells are ratcheting down and losing function, and they stop growing as well. But some of your cells are growing like crazy,โ€ said lead study author Paul Nelson, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona. โ€œThis forms a catch-22. If you get rid of those poorly functioning, sluggish cells, then that allows cancer cells to proliferate, and if you get rid of, or slow down, those cancer cells, then that allows sluggish cells to accumulate. So youโ€™re stuck between allowing these sluggish cells to accumulate or allowing cancer cells to proliferate, and if you do one, you canโ€™t do the other. You canโ€™t do them both at the same time.โ€

But just because thereโ€™s no way to stop aging in its tracks doesnโ€™t mean you canโ€™t slow the process, Masel said. So eat a healthy diet, exercise daily, and let your brows grow out. Maybe you canโ€™t stop time, but by taking care of your body, you can get a lot more of it.