May/December Couples Boost Human Lifespan

[Stuckinthebush]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070917/sc_livescience/maydecembercouplesboosthumanlifespan

Older men who shack up with much younger women keep the grim reaper at bay for the human population and extend our species' lifespan, new research claims.

Even beyond movie stars and Playboy's Hugh Hefner, there is a tendency for older men to partner with younger women, according to the study, published in the Aug. 29 edition of PLoS ONE. In less developed, traditional societies, males are about 5 to 15 years older than their female partners. In the United States and Europe, guys are an average of two years senior to their partners.

More interesting, when old men father children, their genes seem to increase the lifespan of both sexes over evolutionary time.

How it works

Women often lose their reproductive capacity around age 50, but if men can still reproduce into their 70s, Darwin would say it's advantageous for males to live longer lives providing they can hook up with a woman capable of reproducing. Natural selection should favor longevity-boosting genes, which would get passed down from fathers to both sons and daughters. So women would benefit as well in future generations, the scientists say.

Result: Over time, the older-guy-with-younger-gal lifestyle would lift the lifespan ceiling for both men and women in the next generations and so on.


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Well, well...who would have thunk that Fred Thompson was helping out the human race by having a young wife?

:)

[fasttense]

1. Seems to me to be a leap of faith and not fact.

I read the article three ways to Sunday and I still don't see how the old guy who stays fertile impacts the life span. Just cause he stays fertile longer does not mean he will live longer. He is simply passing on his fertility longevity so how does this increase anyones lifespan?

No where in the article does it provide proof that the longer men remain fertile, the longer they live. Hell, it could just be a bunch of men who stay fertile until they die. I guess if a man is still fertilizing women at 100 year old then the 100 year old tendency is passed on. But really how many men keep fertilizing women until they die? Seems to me to be a leap of faith that if they are fertile they will continue to pump out kids, no matter how old they are.