ADSENSE READY
HEALTH - The new study found that women who have had one or more children, will undergo biological aging faster than women who have not had children.
Basically, biological age is the physical changes that occur in your body, while the chronological age is how long you have lived in for years.
Stress during pregnancy, the challenges in labor, and the stress of raising children is considered as the main drivers of biological aging faster.
A study conducted by researchers at George Mason University in Virginia found that women who had given birth at least one child had shorter telomeres.
Telomeres, or the end portion of chromosomes, have long been used as a benchmark a person's biological age by scientists.
Telomeres own duty to protect cells from damage due to age. The longer the size of telomeres, the better the performance of the cell.
However, as we age, telomeres naturally shorten. In short telomeres are themselves associated with increased health risks and also physically aging faster.
To obtain these results, the researchers conducted a survey involving more than 1,500 women, both who had given birth or not.
They found that women who have had one or more children, had telomeres about 4 percent shorter than women who have not given birth.
These findings remained consistent, even when other factors known to influence the length of telomeres is also involved, namely chronological age, body mass index, and smoking habits.
This study showed that "chronic stress" caused by the process of pregnancy, birth and raising children is the reason behind this relationship.
Researcher Anna Poldack said, "There is a possibility that the pregnancy, birth and child rearing can induce chronic stress, which leads to shorter telomere length."
To that end, prevent chronic stress to pass a healthy lifestyle, such as the consumption of foods rich in nutrients, active, meditation, and positive activities during pregnancy until after the birth, is expected to reduce the health risks that may arise as a result of the shortening of telomeres.
