During pregnancy the hands of the body's biological clock run faster and you can see your biological age increase by a couple of years.
However, after giving birth, this process reverses, especially if you are breastfeeding.
This is what researchers from the Yale School of Medicine discovered in a study published in Cell Metabolism.
The research focused on some chemical modifications that DNA undergoes and which fall within the field of epigenomics, i.e. modulations of DNA that change the activity of the gene without altering the constituent components.
Some of these are believed to be an indicator of aging.
The team looked for these indicators in the blood samples of 120 women during pregnancy and, for about half of them, also after giving birth.
From early to late pregnancy, over about 20 weeks, biological age increased by about two years.
However, when researchers examined biological age in the same women three months after giving birth, they found a surprise.
“At three months postpartum, we saw a large decrease in biological age, up to eight years for some individuals,” study coordinator Kieran O'Donnell said in a statement.
“So, while pregnancy increases biological age, there is a clear (and pronounced) catch-up in the postpartum.”
The study also showed that there are some factors that influence the recovery of biological age: a high body mass index before pregnancy seems to make it more difficult to turn back the hands of the biological clock.
In contrast, breastfeeding results in a steeper decline in the mother's biological age in the three months after giving birth.
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