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The Grandmother Effect On Genetic Longevity

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There are theories about effects a person biological and the amount of time available to them. One popular theory that may affect the length of a biological clock is the grandmother effect. This theory includes the belief that the presence of a grandmother increases the life span of both her adult daughter and her grandchildren. Another theory to address the question of how much time is given to an average person is the theory of procreative success; this means that animals only live long enough to ensure the success of the next generation. Even though grandmothers help with the survival of their daughters’ children, the grandmother effect does not influence genetic longevity; procreative success is what determines a human’s biological clock. …show more content…

Yet there are very few studies showing that children with present and active grandparents actually live longer lives in old age. In actuality, Kachel, Jean-Jacques, and Premo claim, “to date, important assumptions of the grandmother hypothesis remain undemonstrated and important questions remain unanswered” (384). The approach taken here is a grandmother’s helpfulness does not affect the longevity of her and her children’s offspring. There is a difference between having an impact on society and having a social role with evolutionary significance. Kachel, Jean-Jacques and Premo explain, “Despite the fact that the help provided by grandmothers significantly reduces the mean interbirth intervals of their adult daughters and significantly increases the survival of their matrilineal grandchildren in our model, grand-mothering has no effect on the evolution of longevity” (398). This is confirmation against the notion that grandmothers increase longevity in grandchildren. The results of the study comply with the ideas of Carnes and Olshansky, “A common misconception is the alleged assumption that longevity, and the mortality that defines it, is programmed within the genome of organisms”

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