“These results suggest that, at least in our study population, having more surviving children acts as a protective factor . . .”For background, read Women Who Give Birth Live Longer and Healthier
-- Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia
Also read God Created Woman to Give Birth and Breast-feed
-- From "Want to Age Slower? Have More Kids!" by Marco Reina, Health Newsline 1/9/16
Probably we all, especially women, always scare of growing old. Now a new research has suggested a new way for ladies to live longer and slow down ageing- Have more kids!
The astonishing findings contradict a conventional wisdom that giving birth to a number of children accelerates the pace of a woman’s biological aging.
Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of each strand of DNA, like the plastic tips at the end of shoelaces, that protect our chromosomes from deterioration.
The length of telomeres is associated with cellular ageing, hence longer telomeres are associated with longevity, explain the researchers.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Why Having More Kids Slows Down the Aging Process" by Rachel Grumman Bender, Yahoo Parenting 1/11/16
Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada studied indigenous women in Guatemala who have high fertility rates in general and found that those with more children had longer telomeres, which are a sign of slower cellular aging, compared with those who had fewer offspring. “Telomeres are little pieces of DNA at the end of chromosomes that protect the rest of the chromosome,” Pablo A. Nepomnaschy, PhD, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor at Simon Fraser University, tells Yahoo Parenting. “The older the cell gets, the shorter the telomere.” On the flip side, long telomeres are associated with longevity.
Although more research is needed to understand why, Nepomnaschy and his colleagues hypothesize that estrogen plays a role. The hormone, which is high during pregnancy, is a known protective factor against oxidative stress, which ages cells, according to Nepomnaschy. “Perhaps the more times you go through pregnancy, the more time you — and your cells — spend protected,” he says.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Having more children could slow aging" by Honor Whiteman, Medical News Today 1/8/16
In the journal PLOS One, researchers reveal that women who had more children had longer telomeres than women who had fewer children.
Each time a cell replicates, telomeres become shorter. They eventually become so short that they stop protecting chromosomes, leaving them vulnerable to damage, which in turn causes our cells to age and stop functioning effectively.
Previously, animal studies have supported the "life history theory," suggesting that higher reproductive behavior is associated with accelerated biological aging.
However, this latest study, led by Prof. Pablo Nepomnaschy and Cindy Barha - both of Simon Fraser University in Canada - contradicts this theory.
Each additional child linked to an increase in telomere length
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation" by Cindy K. Barha, Courtney W. Hanna, Katrina G. Salvante, Samantha L. Wilson, Wendy P. Robinson, Rachel M. Altman, Pablo A. Nepomnaschy, posted at PLOS ONE 1/5/16
Here we investigate the relationship between the number of surviving children born to a woman and telomere length (TL, a marker of cellular aging) over 13 years in a group of 75 Kaqchikel Mayan women. Contrary to LHT’s [life history theory] prediction, women who had fewer children exhibited shorter TLs than those who had more children (p = 0.045) after controlling for TL at the onset of the 13-year study period. . . .
At a “proximate” level, mechanisms involved may include the actions of the gonadal steroid estradiol, which increases dramatically during pregnancy. Estradiol is known to protect TL from the effects of oxidative stress as well as increase telomerase activity, an enzyme that maintains TL. . . .
Here we prospectively evaluated the relationship between number of offspring and change in TL across a 13-year period in a cohort of indigenous Kaqchikel Mayan women. In this population, number of offspring is high and varies remarkably among individuals, providing a good model to investigate a potential association between reproductive effort and the pace of cellular aging in humans. Improving our understanding of the factors that influence inter-individual differences in TL changes can provide useful information to help improve our management of wellbeing, morbidity and mortality during the aging process.
To read the entire study above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Doctors Say Abortion Causes Breast Cancer — Media Silent
