研究表明:生得孩子越多,女性衰老得越慢

New research suggests that the number of children a woman could affect the rate at which her body ages, with more children leading to a slower rate of biological aging.
新的一項研究表明，女性生育孩子的數量可能會影響身體衰老的速度，孩子越多，生理衰老的速度將會越慢。

A team of researchers from Simon Fraser University, Canada, looked at 75 indigenous Guatemalan women from two neighboring rural communities and collected data on the number of children the women had given birth to.
加拿大西蒙弗雷澤大學的一組研究人員,觀察了75名來自兩個鄰近農村社區的土著危地馬拉女性，並收集了這些女性生育孩子的數據。

To find a link between number of children and the rate of biological aging, the team also looked at the length of each woman's telomeres, the protective tips found at the end of each DNA strand that indicate how cells are aging. The longer the cells, the better it is for aging and longevity.
爲了找到生育孩子的數量與生理衰老速度的關係，研究小組同樣研究了每位女性染色體端粒的長度，每個DNA鏈末端發現的用來顯示細胞如何衰老的保護提示。研究發現，細胞越長，越有助於延年益壽。

To assess the length of the women's telomeres the team took saliva samples and DNA swabs from the inside of the cheek. A second set of samples was collected 13 years later.
爲了評估女性染色體端粒的長度，研究小組抽取了唾液樣本以及臉頰內側的DNA樣本。13年之後收集了第二組樣品。

In the first study to look at a direct link between the length of telomeres and the number of children, the results showed that the women who gave birth to more surviving children had longer telomeres, going against the theory that producing a larger number of offspring speeds up biological aging.
在觀察染色體端粒的長度與孩子數量的第一項研究中，結果表明，女性生下的孩子、並且能夠活下來的越多，她們的染色體端粒就越長，這便與這樣的理論相悖，即生育的孩子較多將加速生理的衰老。