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Health

Having children may add 11 years to a woman鈥檚 biological age

By Jessica Hamzelou

22 February 2018

New 女生小视频. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Stressful for your chromosomes?

Description:Megan Maloy/Getty

Women who have given birth seem to have hallmarks of faster biological ageing than those that don鈥檛 鈥 and the difference is equivalent to around 11 years.

That鈥檚 what and her colleagues at George Mason University, Virginia, found when they looked at one measure of biological ageing. The team looked at the length of telomeres 鈥 chunks of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes. These shorten with each cell division, and shrunken telomeres have been associated with a shorter lifespan, as well as a host of chronic diseases such…

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