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Children Impact Longevity: Study Reveals Key Factors
7 Mar
Summary
- Two to three children linked to longest lifespan.
- Pregnancies between ages 24-38 promote healthier aging.
- More than four children associated with shorter lifespans.
A comprehensive study of nearly 15,000 female twins, conducted by researchers from the University of Helsinki and the Minerva Foundation Institute, has explored the relationship between reproduction and longevity.
Published in Nature Communications, the findings indicate that women who had two to three children generally lived the longest. Pregnancies occurring between the ages of 24 and 38 were specifically associated with healthier aging patterns and increased life expectancy.
However, the research also revealed that women with more than four children tended to have shorter lifespans and exhibited signs of accelerated biological aging. This phenomenon may be explained by evolutionary biology theories suggesting finite bodily energy resources are heavily invested in reproduction, potentially limiting capacity for maintenance and repair.
Interestingly, women with no children showed slightly faster aging compared to those with a few children, possibly linked to unmeasured lifestyle or health factors. Epigenetic clocks, which assess biological aging from blood samples, confirmed that women with either very few or many children appeared biologically older than their chronological age.
