Pregnancy Makes You Look Younger, Study Shows How

Photo Source: ottawavalleymoms.com

That “pregnancy glow” that turns beautiful women even more beautiful might actually be real. A study shows that pregnancy quickens tissue rejuvenation at twice the normal rate. This could result to healthier looking skin, shinier hair, and an overall younger look for moms-to-be.

New research published in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that pregnant women repaired damaged tissue in their body more efficiently than they usually would, considering that tissue repair becomes more difficult as people age.

Researchers from the Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem studied the MRI scans of livers transplanted into pregnant and non-pregnant mice.

The older mice had the most difficulty repairing lost liver tissue with an average of only 46% in two days. Young mice significantly regrew the lost tissue faster with a rate of 82% over the same period.

However for older mice, pregnancy astonishingly quickened the regeneration with a recovery rate of 96%, more than twice the rate if they weren’t pregnant.

“As we age, it is more difficult for our tissue to regenerate itself,” said the study.

“Because pregnancy is a unique biological model of a partially shared blood system, we have speculated that pregnancy would have a rejuvenating effect on the mother,” it added.


Sources:
April 13, 2015. "Can Pregnancy Help Keep You Young?!". parents.com
April 10, 2015. "Being pregnant like a youth serum for mothers-to-be". independent.co.uk