Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Other Studies, Which Found Positive Correlation Between Reproduction and Postreproductive Longevity
Alexander Graham Bell (1918): The longer lived parents were the most fertile. Bettie Freeman (1935): Weak positive correlations between the duration of postreproductive life in women and the number of offspring borne. Human Biology, 7: 392-418. Bideau A. (1986): Duration of life in women after age 45 was longer for those women who borne 12 or more children. Population 41: 59-72.
Studies that Found no Relationship Between Postreproductive Longevity and Reproduction Henry L. 1956. Travaux et Documents. Gauter, E. and Henry L. 1958. Travaux et Documents, 26. Knodel, J. 1988. Demographic Behavior in the Past. Le Bourg et al., 1993. Experimental Gerontology, 28: 217-232.
Study that Found a Trade-Off Between Reproductive Success and Postreproductive Longevity
Westendorp RGJ, Kirkwood TBL. 1998. Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success. Nature 396: 743-746. Extensive media coverage including BBC and over 70 citations in scientific literature as an established scientific fact. Previous studies were not quoted and discussed in this article.
Point estimates of progeny number for married aristocratic women from different birth cohorts as a function of age at death. The estimates of progeny number are adjusted for trends over calendar time using multiple regression.
Source: Westendorp, R. G. J., Kirkwood, T. B. L. Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success. Nature, 1998, 396, pp 743746
Number of progeny and age at first childbirth dependent on the age at death of married aristocratic women
Source: Westendorp, R. G. J., Kirkwood, T. B. L. Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success. Nature, 1998, 396, pp 743-746
it is not a matter of reduced fertility, but a case of 'to have or have not'.
Table 1 Relationship between age at death and number of children for married aristocratic women Age at death (years) <20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 >90 0.66 0.39 0.26 0.31 0.28 0.33 0.31 0.45 0.49 Proportion childless mean for all women 0.45 1.35 2.05 2.01 2.4 2.36 2.64 2.08 1.80 Number of children mean for women having children 1.32 2.21 2.77 2.91 3.33 3.52 3.83 3.78 3.53
Source: Toon Ligtenberg & Henk Brand. Longevity does family size matter? Nature, 1998, 396, pp 743-746
Source: Westendorp, R. G. J., Kirkwood, T. B. L. Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success. Nature, 1998, 396, pp 743-746
Potential concerns: data incompleteness, under-reporting of short-lived children, women (because of patrilineal structure of genealogical records), persons who did not marry or did not have children.
Number of children born >> Number of children recorded
Point estimates of progeny number for married aristocratic women from different birth cohorts as a function of age at death. The estimates of progeny number are adjusted for trends over calendar time using multiple regression.
Source: Westendorp, R. G. J., Kirkwood, T. B. L. Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success. Nature, 1998, 396, pp 743-746
Antoinette de Bourbon
(1493-1583)
Lived almost 90 years
She was claimed to have only one child in the dataset used by Westendorp and Kirkwood: Marie (1515-1560), who became a mother of famous Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart. Our data cross-checking revealed that in fact Antoinette had 12 children!
Marie 1515-1560 Francois Ier 1519-1563 Louise 1521-1542 Renee 1522-1602 Charles 1524-1574 Claude 1526-1573 Louis 1527-1579 Philippe 1529-1529 Pierre 1529 Antoinette 1531-1561 Francois 1534-1563 Rene 1536-1566
Every case of childlessness has been checked using at least two different genealogical sources.
Percent of Childlessness
30
20
10
Women's Lifespan
37
572 123
0
<20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90+
Wife's Lifespan
51
0
<30 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90+
Husband's Lifespan
Daughter's Lifespan
(Mean Deviation from Cohort Life Expectancy)
-2
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Offspring data for adult lifespan (30+ years) are smoothed by 5-year running average. Extinct birth cohorts (born in 1800-1880) European aristocratic families. 6,443 cases
p=0.0003
p=0.001
p<0.0001
p=0.001
p=0.006
p=0.05
-2 -2
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
p=0.0001
p=0.0003
2
p=0.04 p=0.04
2
p=0.004 p=0.006
-2
-2
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2
p=0.05 p=0.01
-2
-2
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2
p=0.01 p=0.01
-2
-2
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
-2 -2 -4
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Life expectancy of adult women (30+) as a function of father's age when these women were born (expressed as a difference from the reference level for those born to fathers of 40-44 years). The data are point estimates (with standard errors) of the differential intercept coefficients adjusted for other explanatory variables using multiple regression with nominal variables. Daughters of parents who survived to 50 years.
-1
-2
-3
p = 0.04
-4
15-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59
Life expectancy of older women (60+) as a function of father's age when these women were born (expressed as a difference from the reference level for those born to fathers of 40-44 years). The data are point estimates (with standard errors) of the differential intercept coefficients adjusted for other explanatory variables using multiple regression with nominal variables. Daughters of parents who survived to 50 years.
-1
-2
p = 0.004
-3
15-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59
p = 0.04
35
NS
p=0.04
30
25
Paternal age
Maternal age
Sporadic Alzheimer Disease (low likelihood of MGAD) Familial Alzheimer Disease (high likelihood of MGAD) Controls
Our hypothesis:
Remarkable improvement in the oldest-old survival may reflect an unintended retardation of the aging process, caused by decreased damage accumulation, because of improving the micronutrient status in recent decades
% ingesting
< RDA
11; 8 mg
50%
10%
Men; Women
90; 75 mg
50%
25%
Wakimoto and Block (2001) J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. Oct; 56 Spec No 2(2):65-80. ** Before U.S. Food Fortification Source: Presentation by Bruce Ames at the IABG Congress
Chronic inflammation may contribute to many age-related degenerative diseases including cancer
Hypothesis:
Remarkable improvement in the oldest-old survival may reflect an unintended retardation of the aging process, caused by decreased damage accumulation, because of partial PREVENTION of INFLAMMATION through better control over infectious diseases in recent decades
p=0.006 p=0.02
Life expectancy of adult women (30+) as a function of month of birth (expressed as a difference from the reference level for those born in February). The data are point estimates (with standard errors) of the differential intercept coefficients adjusted for other explanatory variables using multivariate regression with categorized nominal variables.
FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB.
Month of Birth
p=0.008
p=0.04
Life expectancy of adult women (60+) as a function of month of birth (expressed as a difference from the reference level for those born in February). The data are point estimates (with standard errors) of the differential intercept coefficients adjusted for other explanatory variables using multivariate regression with categorized nominal variables.
FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB.
Month of Birth
Mean Lifespan of Females Born in December and February as a Function of Birth Year
80
75
70
65
60
1800
1820
1840
1860
1880
Year of Birth
Exponential Increase of Death Rate with Age in Fruit Flies (Gompertz Law of Mortality)
Linear dependence of the logarithm of mortality force on the age of Drosophila. Based on the life table for 2400 females of Drosophila melanogaster published by Hall (1969). Mortality force was calculated for 3-day age intervals.
Source: Gavrilov, Gavrilova, The Biology of Life Span 1991
Damage
Defect Redundancy
1. Cell cycle checkpoints are disabled in early development (Handyside, Delhanty,1997. Trends Genet. 13, 270-275 )
2. extensive copy-errors in DNA, because most cell divisions responsible for DNA copy-errors occur in early-life (loss of telomeres is also particularly high in early-life) 3. ischemia-reperfusion injury and asphyxia-reventilation injury during traumatic process of 'normal' birth
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0
-5
10
15 20 Age (months)
25
30
35
Failure Kinetics in Mixtures of Systems with Different Redundancy Levels Initial Period
The dependence of logarithm of mortality force (failure rate) as a function of age in mixtures of parallel redundant systems having Poisson distribution by initial numbers of functional elements (mean number of elements, = 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20.
Conclusions (I)
Redundancy is a key notion for understanding aging and the systemic nature of aging in particular. Systems, which are redundant in numbers of irreplaceable elements, do deteriorate (i.e., age) over time, even if they are built of nonaging elements. An actuarial aging rate or expression of aging (measured as age differences in failure rates, including death rates) is higher for systems with higher redundancy levels.
Conclusions (II)
Redundancy exhaustion over the life course explains the observed compensation law of mortality (mortality convergence at later life) as well as the observed late-life mortality deceleration, leveling-off, and mortality plateaus.
Living organisms seem to be formed with a high load of initial damage, and therefore their lifespans and aging patterns may be sensitive to early-life conditions that determine this initial damage load during early development. The idea of early-life programming of aging and longevity may have important practical implications for developing early-life interventions promoting health and longevity.
Acknowledgments
This study was made possible thanks to: generous support from the National
Institute on Aging, and stimulating working environment at the Center on Aging, NORC/University of Chicago