Everyone expects, or at least hopes for wonderful things to happen on his or her birthday. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

A global study conducted over the last 40 years has found your birthday is also a great day for kicking the bucket. Ouch, we bet that takes some of the sweetness out of the birthday cake.

The study followed over two million people across a span of four decades and discovered that folks over the age of 60 were much more likely to die on their birthday from things like falls, heart attacks and suicides, than any other day of the year. But even if you haven’t reached your golden years yet, you’re not off the hook, entirely.

It seems suicide rates go up for men on their special day. Men and women alike are more apt to die of an accident or a physical problem on their birthday. That’s a pretty big birthday bummer. While men have more of a tendency to off themselves when it’s cake time, women are much prone to dropping dead from a stroke when they’re blowing out the candles.

This really isn’t cheerful news, but at least now you know, and can protect yourself. You might want to take some extra blood pressure medicine, and perhaps walk around in a suit of armor (sober, or course) on your next birthday, in order to beat the odds. Some notable people who bit the dust on their birthdays include George Washington Carver, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Ingrid Bergman and William Shakespeare.

Perhaps the next time your birthday rolls around, instead of wishing for another 50 years, you should just pray you make it through the day. Happy birthday!

More From WGBFAM