A new article published in the journal Cell Metabolism states that pregnancy accelerates aging in the body. But there is a caveat: This effect appears to be significantly reversed in the postpartum period.
Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) assistant professor Kieran O’Donnell, PhD, and a team of other scientists examined data from a group of pregnant women who provided epigenetic information throughout pregnancy. This allowed experts to calculate biological indicators of aging.
It turns out that from the beginning to the end of pregnancy (about 20 weeks), the biological (or epigenetic) age increases by about two years. This suggests that pregnancy actually accelerates aging. However, when scientists examined the biological ages of the same woman three months later, they discovered something unexpected.
Three months after birth, experts observed a surprisingly large decrease in biological age. Some women became as much as eight years younger. It turns out that in the postpartum period, the mother’s body recovers significantly.
Additionally, in a new study, the team found that the mother’s pre-pregnancy body mass index negatively affected the healing effect. This situation leads to an overestimation of biological age in the postnatal period. At the same time, breastfeeding caused a steeper decline in the mother’s biological age from pregnancy to three months after birth.
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Source: Ferra
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