Conscientious? You Could Have Trouble Getting Pregnant

You'd think conscientiousness and openness would be wonderful personality features.  And most of the time, they are.  Just, not if you want to have a baby.

A new study has found that:

  • Conscientiousness decreased female fertility
  • Openness decreased male fertility, and
  • Extraversion raised fertility for both men and women
According to medicalnewstoday.com, researchers saw a decline in producing children in neurotic (moody or emotional) men, but oddly, only for those born after 1957.  Maybe it was in the water.

Some of it, for the men, may have something to do with waiting longer to have children.  Research has recently indicated that children born of men over age 50 are more likely to develop schizophrenia as young adults, concerning for us as my husband was 51 when our son was born.  

The study, done in Norway, was part of an examination of falling birth rates. 

But don't despair, if you're conscientious.  Chances are, you could live to 100.  That's because, according to another study at the Web site, centenarian participants who said they were conscientious lived to, well, 100.  Maybe because they take better care of themselves?

You're also less likely to be neurotic, if you're conscientious.  Not surprisingly, most of the centenarians in the study had a positive outlook on life, and most were extroverted, optimistic and easy-going. 

So it's a toss-up.  I'd say being conscientious is a good thing (but that's where I fall!).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Wash Your Chicken and Other Food Safety Myths

I remember when I first heard this.  Don't wash your chicken , before you cook it?  I ignored it.  But over time, I began to realize it's true.  Washing it spreads deadly (or at least sick-making) bacteria.  Really. “You should assume that if you have chicken, you have either Salmonella or Campylobacter bacteria on it, if not both,”Dr. Jennifer Quinlan, an associate professor at Drexel University, told newswise.com.  These two bacteria, she noted, are the leading causes of food-borne illness. “If you wash it, you’re more likely to spray bacteria all over the kitchen and yourself," she said. And the rinse water you've been using? It's not hot enough to kill bacteria anyway. Washing raw poultry was a common unsafe practice in all the groups she studied for a documentary on safe cooking conditions, with some minor cultural differences in the method of washing. People are very attached to the idea of washing raw poultry, she told newswise.com. “Some think they’re
Read more

Need the ER? Pray Your Doc Plays Video Games

We're all so used to picking on our kids for playing video games but the next time he's in the ER, you just might be happy that doctors do it, too. According to new research, video games improve doctors' recognition and triage of severe trauma patients, newswise.com reports. Playing an adventure video game featuring a fictitious, young emergency physician treating severe trauma patients was better than text-based learning at priming real doctors to quickly recognize the patients who needed higher levels of care, according to a new trial led by the  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine .  The results held, even though doctors assigned to the game enjoyed it less than those assigned to traditional, text-based education. This indicates that if game enjoyment can be improved, the already favorable results might be enhanced, the web site notes.  “Physicians must make decisions quickly and with incomplete information. Each year, 30,000 preventable deaths occur
Read more

Take Herbal Supplements? Even Green Tea Extract Can Lead to Liver Damage

Take herbal supplements? You might want to listen up. A new study is warning that new information is showing that some supplements may damage the liver, along with over the counter drugs and even those prescribed by physicians, according to newswise.com. The rate of drug-induced liver injury (DILI), a rare adverse drug reaction which is challenging to diagnose -- and which can lead to jaundice, liver failure and even death -- is increasing more and more.  Experts put it down to the overwhelming use of herbal supplements and other drugs in the last 10 years.  “A lot of consumers have a preconceived notion that if it’s a natural product, it must be safe. But that is not necessarily the case,” the Web site quotes Herbert Bonkovsky, MD, FACG, co-author of the guidelines. “Most of these products are not well-regulated and have very little oversight. Traces of heavy metals and prescription drugs have even been found in some herbal and dietary supplements. We encourage patients to
Read more