Posted on 07/10/2004 4:41:30 PM PDT by wagglebee
Scientists believe they may have unlocked the secret of why women tend to live longer than men.
It is all down to motherhood. The cells from the developing baby pass into the mother's bone marrow during the early stages of pregnancy.
The scientists say these cells may rejuvenate the mother's own, repair damage and fight disease, prolonging her life. The findings, in today's Lancet, could explain why women who have had children are less likely to develop arthritis, multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
Professor Nick Fisk, a specialist in foetal medicine
at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, said they have found that stem cells from the foetus are stored in the mother's bone marrow and some had changed into bone.
All the women in the study who had sons had male stem cells in their bone marrow.
Professor Fisk said: "Every time a woman gets pregnant she gets a shower of stem cells that can fight disease."
He said more research needed to be done to find out if the stem cells in the mother's body protect against some disease but contribute to the cause of others.
But they will conclude that this will make women live longer and talk about the added benefit of not having the "trauma" of childbirth.
How does this explain crotchety old nuns that were in my grade school?
No kidding. Nuns live a very long time.
ping
I'm sure you weren't suggesting that us stay at home moms don't work as hard as our go out and work hubbies :-)
Did you tell them to mind their own business? :)
I knew that I would get a post like this right after I pressed "post" on that last one :-)
No, moms ( or "Mums" as our British and Australian friends are called) have the most important and essential job on earth, and it is of course very hard at times. I would suggest, however, that it's a different and more "natural" sort of work....much more "natural" and therefore healthy for a human being than, say, working on an automobile assembly line, being an accountant, a contruction worker or most other things that people have to do away from home that is devoid of any form of nurturing environment.
I am getting on thin ice here because I haven't read studies pertaining to this specifically, but I simply have a gut feeling that doing an awful job that you absolutely hate day in and day out is more stressful on any human being than a physiologically natural activity such as raising a family, even though raising a family is far more important than anything else on Earth and is often quite stressful....it simply seems logical to me.
I have, however, read numerous studies showing the relationships between a declining womens' lifespan over the past few decades and the degree to which women have become integrated in the labor force...there's quite a tight correlation.
If a woman working for a city garbage collection company out on a smelly truck in the rain all day has the same projected lifespan as a stay-at-home mom, I would be very interested in seeing that data.
Although there could never be any physical proof to back up your assertion, it sounds absolutely dead-on to me. The kind of stress moms face in the home IS a more natural kind of stress. In fact, a woman's body is, in some ways, designed to deal with this stress. An example that comes to mind is the release of "pleasure" hormones within the body when a woman is breastfeeding. There's not much more in life more stressful than having a newborn baby. When a woman breastfeeds, pleasure hormones (I'm pretty sure they are progesterone and oxytocin) are released. They work as relaxants. They are so effective, in fact, that many moms fall asleep while breastfeeding, not just from exhaustion. Its a very calming sensation.
No, my revenge was raising four responsible, hardworking, drug and alcohol free, employed, conservative children. All adults now and my hardwork can still be seen. My best work to date.
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