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Science & Technology | |
Researchers find 'pronounced' biological benefits in women after giving birth | |
2024-04-20 | |
In other words, pregnancy accelerates aging. But researchers also found that any acceleration can be greatly reversed postpartum. Researchers tracked more than 100 women through their pregnancies, taking blood samples to measure their biological age and other epigenetic markers. They found the physiological stress from pregnancy accelerated biological age by several years. But when those same women were studied three months postpartum, researchers found a "pronounced reversal of biological aging," according to the study. "The magnitude of the decrease in maternal biological age from the pregnant to non-pregnant state was about 2 to 3 times more than the increase in biological age from early to late pregnancy," the study said. Dr. Kieran O'Donnell, an assistant professor at Yale who helped conduct the study, explained: At three months postpartum, we saw a remarkably large decrease in biological age, by as much as eight years for some individuals, so while pregnancy increases biological age there is a clear (and pronounced) recovery in the postpartum. By contrast, a higher body-mass index negatively impacted the reversal. That means women already experiencing poor metabolic health cannot tap into the fountain of youth that pregnancy apparently provides. | |
Posted by:Besoeker |