Greetings,
A new publication just came out, which shows that exceptional human
longevity is *NOT* associated with infertility (contrary to the earlier
widely publicized article published in "Nature"):
Does Exceptional Human Longevity Come With High Cost of Infertility?
Testing the Evolutionary Theories of Aging.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1019: 513-517, 2004
Full text is available online at:
http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/full/1019/1/513
and
http://longevity-science.org/Evolution-ANYAS-2004.pdf
Kind regards,
-- Leonid Gavrilov
Author of the book "The Biology of Life Span"
http://longevity-science.org/index.html#Book
Medline abstract is attached below:
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Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004 Jun;1019:513-517
Does Exceptional Human Longevity Come with a High Cost of Infertility?:
Testing the Evolutionary Theories of Aging.
Gavrilova NS, Gavrilov LA, Semyonova VG, Evdokushkina GN.
Center on Aging, NORC and the University of Chicago, 1155 East 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637-2745. gavrilova at longevity-science.org
The purpose of this study is to test the prediction of the evolutionary
theory of aging that human longevity comes with the cost of impaired
reproductive success (higher infertility rates). Our validation study is
based on the analysis of particularly reliable genealogical records for
European aristocratic families using a logistic regression model with
childlessness as a dependent (outcome) variable, and woman's life span,
year of birth, age at marriage, husband's age at marriage, and husband's
life span as independent (predictor) variables. We found that the woman's
exceptional longevity did not increase her chances of being infertile. It
appears that the previous reports by other authors of high infertility
among long-lived women (up to 50% infertility) are related to incomplete
data, that is, births of children not reported. Thus, the concept of the
high cost of infertility for human longevity is not supported by the data
when these data are carefully cross-checked, cleaned, and reanalyzed.
PMID: 15247077 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15247077
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__________________________________
Dr. Leonid A. Gavrilov, Center on Aging
NORC/University of Chicago
1155 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637-2745
USA
Fax: (773) 256-6313, Phone: (773) 256-6359
FOR MORE INFO PLEASE VISIT OUR SCIENTIFIC WEBSITE :
http://longevity-science.org/
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