A team of anthropologists have discovered that reproduction changes forever women’s bones in previously unknown ways. Its revelation, based on original research, throws fresh light on how childbirth can change the body forever.
The study’s findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
“Our findings provide further evidence of the collide Paola Cerrito, who led the study as a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology and NYU University, explains that reproduction takes place in the female body, further proving that skeletons are not a static body but a dynamic organ that changes according to life events. Dentistry.
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Specifically, the researchers found that calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus concentrations were lower in women who have undergone childbirth. These changes are associated with childbirth and breastfeeding.
However, they caution that while other clinical studies have shown calcium and phosphorus are necessary for optimal bone strength, the new findings do not address the overall health effects of both. primates or humans. Instead, they say, the work sheds light on the dynamic nature of our bones.
“Bone is not a static and dead part of the skeleton,” said NYU anthropologist Shara Bailey, one of the study’s authors. “It is constantly adjusting and responding to physiological processes.”
The other authors of the study, which appears in the journal PLOS ONE, are Timothy Bromage, professor at NYU College of Dentistry, Bin Hu, adjunct professor at NYU College of Dentistry, and Justin Goldstein, a candidate candidate. PhD candidate at Texas State University, and Rachel Kalisher, a doctoral candidate at Brown University.
For a long time, menopause can affect a woman’s bones. Less clear is how events earlier in the life cycle, such as reproduction, can affect skeleton composition. To solve this problem, the researchers studied the primary lamina propria – the main bone in the adult skeleton. This aspect of the skeleton is an ideal part of the body to examine because it changes over time and leaves behind biomarkers of these changes, allowing scientists to track changes in the body. whole life.
In the study, the researchers examined the growth rate of the lamellar bone in the femur, or femur, of both male and female primates who lived at the Sabana Seca Field Station in Puerto Rico and died of natural causes. natural kernel. Veterinarians at the field station monitored and recorded information about the reproductive and health history of these primates, allowing the researchers to match changes in bone composition to events in life with remarkable precision.
Cerrito and her colleagues used electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis – methods commonly deployed to assess the chemical composition of tissue samples – to calculate the changes. on calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, magnesium and sodium concentrations in primates’ bones.
Their results showed different concentrations of some of these elements in women who had given birth compared with men and women who had not given birth. Specifically, in women who have given birth, calcium and phosphorus are lower in the bones formed during reproduction. Furthermore, there was a significant decline in magnesium levels during lactation of these primates.
Cerrito, now a research fellow at ETH Zurich, said: “Our study shows that even before spawning ceases, the skeleton responds dynamically to changes in reproductive status. “Moreover, these findings reaffirm the significant impact that childbirth has on a woman’s body – quite simply, the evidence for reproduction is ‘written in the bones’ for life.”
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