pregnancy May be cause of aging this went unnoticed by us. This is the conclusion reached by new research published in the journal PNAS scientists from Columbia University.
Their study was conducted with 1735 Philippine women, who had to answer a series of questions about their pregnancy, number of children, socio-economic level and some habits. In addition, samples were taken for analysis biological aging.
It’s easy to determine whether a person is older than another at first glance when there are a lot of people around age difference. However, when we are with two people of the same age, we will have to resort to biological aging. Chronological age is one thing, but the age of our cells is another. Whatever the cause of aging, it can be calculated using the so-called epigenetic clock. Using this technique, the study authors confirmed that women who had never had children were younger than those who were mothers. Moreover, as a rule, the latter aged more strongly with age. number of pregnancies.
What is a biological clock?
Our DNA This is our instruction. All the cells in our body contain the same book, but not all use the same instructions. For example, all cells contain the gene required to synthesize insulin, but this gene is used only in the pancreatic cells responsible for producing the hormone. This turning on of a gene so it can be used is called gene expression. Besides, it doesn’t just depend on the location. It also depends on the moment. For example, even in the pancreas, insulin will be synthesized only when it is needed, because a lot of glucose accumulates in the blood. In other cases, the gene may remain turned off.
All this is more or less programmed, but can also change depending on the environment through the so-called epigenetic modifications. These are not mutations. The DNA sequence has not been changed. But a series of labels are added that tell the cells how they should use these instructions. These labels can be of different types, but the most famous are methylation.
These methylations have been observed to decrease as cells age. This is a problem because the disease-causing gene switch may be turned on by mistake. But at the same time it is useful to calculate biological age person. If we take two people of the same age and one of them has much less methylation in their DNA, we will know that their cells are older.
Pregnancy as a cause of aging
The authors of this study found that DNA methylation decreases during pregnancy. That is, women who had children seemed biologically older.
This cause of aging has been shown to be independent of other factors such as sociocultural level or smoking. Of course, it must be acknowledged that the study has a major limitation, since many of these women had their first child during pregnancy. adolescence. This is a stage where the body has not yet completed development in many ways, so pregnancy can affect it.
We need to look into the reasons much better to see if there is something else. In this regard, it would be interesting to repeat the study in another country and with women who, although young, did not become teenage mothers.
If the results remain the same, with more tests we might be able to suggest that pregnancy is a cause of aging. At this stage it will be necessary to analyze whether having many children means long-term health problems.
In any case, don’t panic. The differences are not that terrible and, at most, should be taken into account in multiple pregnancies. Just one or two of them won’t turn you into an old lady.
Source: Hiper Textual
