Exposure to infections in early life not related to a higher risk of mortality in adulthood -
A new biological study from the University of Stirling found that exposure to infections in early life will have lasting consequences for the survival later life and reproduction
in the UK there are 150 years, 20 years, could expect to live to 60 years. today, at age 20, should live to over 80. Why is the life of adults increased so much over the past 150 years?
Previous research has suggested that diseases that were common in childhood, such as smallpox, measles and whooping cough caused inflammation of long duration, which subsequently increased the risk of cardiovascular disease adulthood and resulted in early death.
experts believe that since the introduction of vaccines and the eradication of these diseases, children rarely get these diseases more and does not undergo inflammation long term, and therefore live longer .
However, if that were the case, we expect to infections in childhood to be linked to the early death of heart disease, stroke and cancer.
now evolutionary ecologist at the University of Stirling and the University of Turku, Finland, has not found support for the idea that exposure to infections in early life can lead higher risk of mortality in adulthood.
lead researcher Adam Hayward, impact Research Fellow at the University of Stirling, said:
"Our analyzes are important because they show that early exposure diseases of living n has not been linked to an increased risk of death in later life. It did not involve a risk of specifically heart disease death, stroke and cancer and was not related to age at first birth, number of children born, or child survival rates in men or women.
"Overall, we found no support for the idea that exposure to infections in early life can have long term consequences for the survival later life and reproduction. instead, it seems more likely that the improvement of conditions in adulthood, such as health and nutrition, are responsible for the recent increases adult lifetime. "
the researchers used data from the parish registers of births, marriages and deaths collected in seven parishes in Finland. The 7.283 men and women studied were born between 1751 and 1850, a period before the introduction of effective medicine and contraception.
Each person was marked on their likely exposure to life early in disease based on the deaths of children against infections that occurred during their childhood. If a child is born at a time when a high proportion of children died of infectious diseases, it was assumed that they themselves had a higher exposure to the disease. The researchers analyzed how early exposure of an individual's disease is linked to their survival, deaths from cardiovascular disease, and fertility.
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