Having more children associated with lower stroke risk for women

While some say having lots of kids can make you lose your faculties, a new study suggests otherwise.Research co-led by UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio, associates a greater number of live births with a reduced risk of stroke or brain damage for mothers. As more women than men have strokes, the finding is seen as significant in helping determine risk.The study, titled, "Number of Live Births as a Protective Factor Against Clinical and Covert Brain Infarcts: The Framingham Heart Study," was published on April 7 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, and on behalf of the association.

Our findings would suggest that reproductive factors – for example, number of live births – may be an additional factor to consider when assessing stroke risk in women."

Sudha Seshadri, MD, behavioral neurologist, professor and founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio

She is joint senior author of the study with Emer R. McGrath, PhD, with the School of Medicine at the University of Galway in Ireland. "Inclusion of this risk factor in female-specific clinical prediction rules for stroke may enhance risk prediction in women," Seshadri said.