4 ms·
Perhaps it was this article -- where analysis of age-50+ members of a particular Amish community showed that lifespan of mothers increases linearly up to 14 chi
by jcl 9y ago
Perhaps it was this article -- where analysis of age-50+ members of a particular Amish community showed that lifespan of mothers increases linearly up to 14 children, and increases with later age at last birth:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16510865 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16510865
(Interesting... it also shows a positive -- but lower/noisier -- effect for fathers as well, so there may be more at work than just stem cells.)
- toasterlovin 9y agoJust a friendly reminder that correlation != causation. Personally, I would bet that what's happening here is that healthier individuals choose to have more children, rather than that having more children increases life span.
- BurningFrog 9y agoAlmost. An evolutionary theory based guess is that healthy long lived individuals are more attractive in the mating arena and therefore have more children.
- toasterlovin 9y agoI think the Amish get married young and then stay married for life, so not sure if attractiveness plays a factor (since more or less everybody gets a mate).