Why Having Lots Of Kids Is Good For Your Brain!

Having one kid or many kids is a blessing yet very stressful.  While some young people think they're going to have an army of children.  Then they have that first one and realize that those little humans are exhausting, expensive, and completely life-consuming and after that they may think, okay yeah, I am good with just the one.

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But there's a new study floating around that shows having kids is in fact really GOOD for your brain, especially if you are having a TON of them. Having a handful of children is linked to "increased brain connectivity" in areas that typically decline with age . . . so, kids can protect against your brain aging!

The effect is seen in both moms and dads, so it isn't going through pregnancies it's self that it is the caregiving experience. When it comes to men specifically, having more and more children was associated with "increased grip strength," which is apparently "a predictor of overall brain health." Although they didn't really get into the specific numbers of kids.

What they did find is that the more children the parents had, the stronger the brain differences appeared.  But obviously, there are a few downsides like having to massively stress over putting all those kids through college. Or just keeping track of them all day every day.

With all of that being said, people without kids are NOT completely left out. The findings did highlight the true value of caregiving, or "nurturing," which can extend to taking care of other family members, friends, and neighbors and even strangers. Many other factors can influence brain aging, including level of education, physical activity or lack of, your diet, and level of social engagement.