Having kids can actually fight brain aging: new study
WeirdNews
As many as 37,000 adults were included in the research
(Web Desk) - If you want to slow down your brain's ageing, have children - that's what a recent UK study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has suggested.
As many as 37,000 adults were included in the research, which is the largest investigation of parental brain function to date.
The study claimed that although many challenges are associated with parenthood such as exhaustion and stress, having children may help a person in the long run.
They can provide cognitive stimulation, physical activity and social interaction, things much needed for a human body.
"We find parenting more children is associated with higher brain-wide functional connectivity, especially in networks associated with movement and sensation," the study said.
Most studies on parenthood does not include fathers as they do not physically bear the child's birth, but this study had as many as 17,000 men.
The study said that despite not being directly involved in the pregnancy - the birth of a child and raising them - children have a major effect on the brain health of the fathers too.
"These same networks showed lower functional connectivity associated with higher age, suggesting that parenthood might protect against functional brain aging. This effect is observed in both females and males, implicating the caregiving environment, rather than pregnancy alone," if further added.
Moreover, if the number of children increases, the amount of better effect on health also increases, the study said.
Avram Holmes, a psychiatry professor at the Rutgers Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research and the lead author of the study said in the published study, "We're seeing a widespread pattern of functional alterations, where a higher number of children parented is associated with increased functional connectivity, especially in parts of the brain related to movement, sensation and social connection."
