研究:養小孩能降低男性罹患心臟病風險

Fathers could be annoyed for being woken by their offspring in the early hours of the morning, but having children could mean they have healthier hearts。

A decade-long study found that those who remained child-free had a higher risk of dying from heart disease than those who "sowed their oats."

US researchers said it raised the possibility that infertility may be a potential early warning sign of future heart trouble and certain cancers。

The researchers followed more than 130,000 married men who were retired and over 50 for a decade。

Men with previous underlying diseases, such as stroke, heart disease or some related condition were excluded. Hence, the men in their list started off in relatively good health。

Over the course of the 10-year follow up period, some 10 percent of the men died, and one out of every five of these deaths was from heart disease。

When looking at the parental status of these men, childless participants in the study had about a 17 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who were fathers。

The study leader Dr Michael Eisenberg of Stanford University in California said it was not possible to determine whether men in the study simply chose not to have children or whether the men's partners were infertile。

But excluding unmarried men offered an approximation of male infertility, and the link to heart disease raises important questions that merit further research。

The finding has be published in the journal Human Reproduction。據英國《每日郵報》9月27日報道，父親們可能會因早早地被孩子吵醒而惱怒不已，但養小孩可能意味着他們擁有更健康的心臟。

一項爲期十年的研究發現，那些無子女的人死於心臟病的機率大於那些已經“開枝散葉”的人。

美國研究人員表示，這項研究增加了不孕症可能是將來患心臟病和個別癌症的早期潛在預警信號的可能性。

研究人員跟蹤調查了13萬已婚退休的男性，他們都上了50歲。

他們排除了那些先前患有如中風、心臟病或相關病症等潛在疾病的人，所以在(研究)起始階段，那些被列爲研究對象的人的健康狀況都相對良好。

在十年跟蹤調查期間，大約有10%的男性死亡，而他們中的五分之一是死於心臟病。

當調查這些已亡男性是否曾爲人父時，研究人員發現，無子女的研究對象罹患心臟病的風險比那些當父親的要高17%。

來自加利福尼亞斯坦福大學的研究領導人邁克爾·埃森伯格表示，他們難以確定是研究對象自己選擇不要孩子還是他們的伴侶患有不孕症。

但是，因爲研究排除了未婚男性，這表明研究對象可能患有不孕症。而要回答男性不孕和心臟病(是否有)關聯的疑問還需要更多的研究。

該發現發表在《人類生殖》雜誌上。