Summer babies may get a head start in life
Timing is everything they say. This is undoubtedly true when it comes to sports, it is certainly true of comedy, and it is utterly irrefutable when it comes to politics. Now a new study has shown that timing even matters when it comes to your birth and we aren’t talking star signs here; we are talking that the season you are born in may affect your lifetime health.
These findings are reflected in a new study that looked at data from 450,000 people participating in the UK Biobank study. They examined the data to see whether month of birth had an effect on birth weight, onset of puberty, and adult height.
The researchers think that the difference could be caused by how much sunlight the mother gets during pregnancy which in turn affects her vitamin D levels.
This was a Northern Hemisphere study of course and the results showed that babies born in the summer months were heavier at birth and also taller as adults. This was also the first study to show that summer babies started puberty later which is a known indicator of better health in adult life.
The researchers think that the difference could be caused by how much sunlight the mother gets during pregnancy which in turn affects her vitamin D levels.
Whether these findings would translate to the Southern Hemisphere and countries like Australia, where the differences between winter and Summer sun are not so marked, remains open to debate. However, it certainly seems those summer beach babies may have a slight head start in life, which might mean we may see a sudden upsurge in Autumnal conceptions, after all when the weather cools why not snuggle under a blanket?
