For women, there seem to be even more benefits, with the study finding that summer baby girls actually start their periods later than those born during the rest of the year – which is an indicator of female adult health.
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Researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit looked into the correlation of a baby’s birth month to adult height, weight and onset of puberty.
As per study researchers, people having birthdays in June, July or August have less chance to have low birth weight, enter puberty early or to be of short stature in comparison to others.
Researchers analyzed 450,000 men and women from the United Kingdom Biobank study, a major national health resource that provides data on UK volunteers to shed light on the development of diseases.
According to the study, babies born in the summer months tend to be taller and healthier than those born in the other seasons. Humans and animals alike show quickest growth during summer months and slowest growth in the winter and fall, when our organism is less prone to developing itself.
Previous studies had reported the effects of birth season on weight and health, leading Dr Perry and the team to study the timing of puberty, an important link between early life and later health, more closely. That is because birth months are not related to factors such as social class or parents’ ages, according to Pioneer News. When women are exposed to more sunlight in the second trimester of pregnancy they get a higher dose of vitamin D.
Study’s senior investigator John Perry said, “This is the first time puberty timing has been robustly linked to seasonality”.
The research team believes that the varying difference of Vitamin D the mother and baby receives following the birth date play a crucial role. Starting puberty later is associated with better protection against certain cardiovascular diseases as well as hormone-dependent cancers.
Summer babies have it good.
Exposure to sunlight causes the body to synthesize vitamin D, which influences the environment in the womb (a la “fetal programming”). The results, said scientists show that the birth month has measurable effects on the health and development, but additional work is necessary to understand what the mechanisms are behind that effect.
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One such limitation is that the study did not include a direct measurement of maternal or fetal vitamin D status to be able to establish a causal relationship.
