Children Of Old Fathers Live Longer

Dominator · **Joined:** 28 Sep 2010, 15:54 **Posts:** 2886

According to recent scientific studies...

Very interesting implications. If the link becomes accepted it would suggest that the discrepancy between how long people live in different areas may not only be down to health inequalities... Questions about the age of your father may become part of the process for applying for life insurance...

Richard · **Posted:** 12 Jun 2012, 15:04

Dominator wrote:

According to recent scientific studies...

Very interesting implications. If the link becomes accepted it would suggest that the discrepancy between how long people live in different areas may not only be down to health inequalities... Questions about the age of your father may become part of the process for applying for life insurance...

The BBC headline says 'older' not 'old'. There is a difference - especially if you are in that age range yourself!

barnardhobbit · **Joined:** 29 Sep 2010, 21:19 **Posts:** 4340

"The team found the link after analysing the DNA of 1,779 young adults"

I guess that means up to age 30 not elderly 60+ year old men.

doug · **Joined:** 12 Apr 2012, 23:19 **Posts:** 54

Read the full article Barnard - the young adults they used for research were:

Quote:

individuals whose fathers were older when they were born.

barnardhobbit · **Joined:** 29 Sep 2010, 21:19 **Posts:** 4340

doug wrote:

Read the full article Barnard - the young adults they used for research were:

Quote:

individuals whose fathers were older when they were born.

Older than what ? ?

Dominator · **Joined:** 28 Sep 2010, 15:54 **Posts:** 2886

Is this really so tricky to understand?

doug · **Joined:** 12 Apr 2012, 23:19 **Posts:** 54

Suddenly your Neanderthal-like avatar all makes sense Barnard.

barnardhobbit · **Joined:** 29 Sep 2010, 21:19 **Posts:** 4340

doug wrote:

Suddenly your Neanderthal-like avatar all makes sense Barnard.

There is no need to be insulting Doughy Boy

This report is flawed as it supplies no real data to back up its claims and the sample size is too small to prove anything
and it does not say that "Old Mens Sperm" produces Children that live longer (as the title suggests).

I also note the report says "Although delaying fatherhood increases the risk of miscarriage" which I always thought men
usually did not suffered from !

At a guess the young men that took part in this study have not Yet died - So how does anyone know how long they will live ?

As I was 35 when my first born child (Son) entered the world and was 41 when my last daughter was born should I let them
both and my other middle daughter know that they will live forever ?

Or does this only apply to the Male Children and not the Females of elderly fathers ?

derogatory · **Joined:** 28 Sep 2010, 20:55 **Posts:** 3170

The key part is at the very end

Quote:

It might be possible that the advantage of receiving long telomeres from an old father is more than offset by the disadvantage of higher levels of general DNA damage and mutations in sperm, he said.

According to the BBC all they've done is show that older men have longer telomeres [though as BH says unclear exactly who they mean by 'older men']. On the basis that longer telomeres may predict longer life expectancy, they believe it is possible older fathers will have children who will live longer.

But it's all very hypothetical... there is no actual evidence for such a conclusion. Given that it is known that DNA in sperm is increasingly damaged with time, it is equally possible that children of older fathers are more likely to suffer from various genetic diseases. The risk of miscarriage increases. So perhaps overall life expectancy would not be increased and even if it were, would it out-weigh the extra suffering?

Daz · **Joined:** 11 Dec 2011, 16:48 **Posts:** 389

I don't know much about the research but there is a theoretical validity to it.

Older parents are likely to be more economically stable also a wider range of life experiences can be brought to parenting.

These factors could mitigate their off spring taking up risky behaviours that limit their longevity.

Theoretically.

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