Did you know that giving birth to more kids will slow down your aging process?
Health sciences researchers at the Simon Fraser University, Canada have discovered that the number of children born to a woman determine the pace at which her body ages.
The study found out that women who give birth to more serving children exhibited longer telomeres.
Telomeres are protective compound structure found at the end of each DNA chromosomes and are characteristics of cellular aging, therefore, the longer the telomeres the higher the robustness.
The telomeres lengths in 75 participants who had given birth to a number of children.
The women’s telomeres lengths were measured twice through salivary specimens and buccal swabs 13 years apart.
According to Pablo Nepomnaschy, the led author of the study, the research, first on its kind contradicts theory that claim biological aging process is accelerated by the higher number of children.
“The slower rate of telomere shortening found in the study participants who have more children is associated with increase in estrogen a hormones produced during pregnancy. The hormones acts as dominant antioxidant that protects cells against telomere shortening,” he said.
He further explained that the social environment one lives also influence the relationship between their biological aging and reproductiveness.
“A woman surrounded by greater support leads to an increase in the amount of metabolic energy that can be allocated to tissue maintenance, thereby slowing down the process of aging,” he added.