According to a study, women who give birth before the age of 21 or girls who reach puberty before the age of 11 have a quadrupled risk of developing serious metabolic diseases and a doubled risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart failure, and obesity. According to a study conducted by experts at the US-based Buck Institute for Research on Ageing, delayed puberty and childbirth are genetically linked to a longer lifespan, less frailty, slower epigenetic ageing, and a decreased risk of age-related disorders including type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's.
Early reproduction-promoting genetic traits have serious long-term consequences, such as accelerated ageing and disease. The very factors that help enhance the offspring's survival may have detrimental consequences for the mother. These risk factors, whether positive or negative, clearly have significant influence on a variety of age-related diseases and should be considered in the larger context of overall health. It is also noted that the findings had important public health implications.
Regression analysis on almost 200,000 women in the UK was used to validate genetic connections in the study, which was published in the journal eLife. The study found 126 genetic markers that modulate the effects of early puberty and delivery on ageing. Early reproductive events contribute to a higher body mass index (BMI), which raises the risk of metabolic diseases.
This highlights the importance of BMI as a mediator of this process. Awareness of the long-term effects of reproductive timing enables the creation of individualised health care plans that may lessen the dangers of early puberty and childbirth. Dietery modifications, metabolic testing, and lifestyle changes could all help women's long-term health.