Motherhood comes with its pros and cons, especially when you’re carrying a child. But most people don’t know that the pains from pregnancy are just the start for women carrying a baby. It appears that being pregnant changes chemical markers in the mother’s DNA. These genetic changes have been known in the scientific field for a while, and they seem to have the same precursors as someone who’s getting old. The body signals the same genetic changes as a person gets old and genetically advances the mother’s age. But thankfully, there’s new research that shows that the opposite effect could happen shortly after pregnancy.
Indicating How We’re Aging
Normally, our biological aging is indicated by physical changes in our bodies. Aches and pains may start developing, as well as the loss of pigment in hair and wrinkles. But there are also changes in our genetic makeup that can be a much more accurate indicator of how we’re aging. Recently, scientists have been looking at the accrument methyl groups in our DNA that indicate how we’re aging. From the day we are born to a century old, the methylation levels drastically change in our DNA.
Genome Biology published a paper that supports this theory. A bioinformatician at the University of California, Los Angeles, Steve Horvath, stated, “what was not yet known was that one can develop an age predictor that really works well across most tissues and cell types.”
The paper shows that as long as the cells are non-cancerous, then the prediction of their age through this method is extremely accurate.
Andrew Teschendorff, a computational biologist at University College London, was part of the study. It represents the most convincing demonstration so far of age-associated changes in DNA methylation that are consistent across most tissue types.
Increasing Their Biological Age
The genetic advancement makes sense. Think about how much mothers go through during pregnancy and childbirth. They’ll definitely be tired and need plenty of bed rest immediately afterward. This could be due to their body signaling the same signals in older people.
Other research has found that the stress that a mother goes through alone is enough to increase her biological age by two years.
But luckily, recent scientific research had found that a few months after giving birth, a woman’s chemical “clock” will actually revert back to what it was. That means that mothers don’t need to worry about rapid aging due to childbirth, although stress would be the biggest artificial aging factor.
Sources:
nature.com
nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13981