A new study suggests that people born in the summer are often healthier as babies and as adults. Similarly, the study shows that girls born in the summer often started puberty at a later age which they say is a strong indicator of better health in adulthood. They believe that more sunlight – and therefore higher vitamin D exposure – in the second trimester of pregnancy could explain the effect, Yahoo Health reported.
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For the study, the researchers compared the vital health statistics of 450,000 men and women registered in the UK Biobank, a repository of data on height, weight, cognitive function and other variables.
Whereas babies born in December, January and February tended to be lighter at birth and shorter at adults. Or at least, this is what medical experts have found out after analyzing the findings of the current study.
It is known that childhood growth and development, including the timing of puberty, is an important link between early life and later health. As per the researchers, early puberty has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer later in life. However, he stated, more research is needed to fully comprehend the mechanisms at play.
For puberty in girls, summer births were 0.11 years before average, while autumn births were 0.09 years behind.
Sure, we’ve all heard the theory that summer babies are sunnier, more outgoing and happier, whereas winter babies are more withdrawn, quiet and mysterious. The researchers note that “the most compelling associations to date appear to be those with immune-related disease, such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis”.
“We don’t know the mechanisms that cause these season of birth patterns on birth weight, height, and puberty timing”, said Dr. Perry. The study does not directly measure the maternal/fetal vitamin D status so the researchers would like to do further research on the topic, but it is an “interesting result”, Perry said, and an “interesting idea”.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, here’s a list of the conditions you’re most likely to develop based on your birth month if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.
He and his team hypothesize that these seasonal differences could be down to how much sunlight the mother receives during pregnancy – a factor that affects vitamin D levels.
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Dr. Nicholas Tatonetti, a biomedical informatics researcher at Columbia University who wasn’t part in the study, said that the new findings do not provide a guide to when to have babies, but what external elements influence our health on the long-term.
