A new study has claimed to find that women who have children aged 11-years faster than women who do not have children.
The findings were made following a study by researchers at George Mason University, Virginia, which studied telomeres, which sit at the end of chromosomes and protect DNA from degeneration.
Telomeres are seen by scientists as being key to understanding ageing, and it is due to the shortening of these compounds over time that allows cellular breakdown and much of the human ageing process to take place.
Scientists in the study found that women who have children have telomeres that are significantly shorter than child-free women, equivalent to 11 years of natural degradation.
As a population sample the scientists took blood samples of almost 2,000 American women aged between 20 and 44 and then measured their telomere length while taking into account and weighing for environmental factors such as socio-economic status and lifestyle choices. What was found was that women without children have telomeres 4.2% shorter on average than the women without children.
In fact, the shortening of the telomeres was more significantly impacted by having children than by obesity or smoking.
What astonished scientists was that this finding is completely contradictory to previous studies, including one of Mayan women, which showed women with more children have longer telomeres than women with no children. There have also been a number of studies completed that showed women with children live longer than those without.
This contradiction has led Anna Pollack, lead author of the study, to suggest that the ageing impact may not be down to the physical impact of having children, but instead the stress of rearing a child in modern society. This is particularly true in the United States where maternity cover and state-subsidised childcare facilities are very sparsely delivered.
As Pollack herself says:
“The findings should be interpreted with caution."
[Based on reporting by: IFL science]
COMMENTS