The unexpected rewards of fatherhood.

Fatherhood comes with many rewards and, it must be said, responsibilities. Curiously, and unexpectedly, in some ways, it also seems to come with a biological reward: better health. A very large study of 138,000 men by the AARP, concluded that men who had fathered children, were 17% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease than men who had never done so.

Rather unflatteringly, researchers compared this health effect, to the benefits of owning a dog. Both share in common a simple mechanism: caring for another. It seems that having someone to care about may bring blessings, other than the immediate rewards that come with expressing such care.

The research did not express any conclusions on whether this effect depended on the number of children in anyway, but was expressed in terms of childless or not childless.

Of course, this effect may be no more than another effect altogether: the ill health that might cause a man to be infertile. So, what we might be seeing here, might not be a positive effect of fatherhood, at all, but a negative effect of the inability to father a child. Either way, it does suggest that, in this narrow respect, fathers are healthier than non-fathers. I find it interesting, for it does suggest some kind of positive selection process for better health in the reproductive system itself. Perhaps evolution hasn’t come to as much of a halt, as many people seem to believe (in truth it is, if anything, faster than before, due to new selection processes at work...not all of them beneficial).

Anyway, this research cheered me a little. As the father of three sons, perhaps they bring me another kind of reward, other than the obvious ones inherent in parenting. If so, thank you to my Three Musketeers! (and to my wife for providing them.)

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Kim Peek, Mega-Savant, dies.

Kim Peek, the internationally renowned mega-savant, has died of a heart attack. He was only 58.

Though he had a massive heart attack on Saturday morning, his death was not announced until today.

Now, I was rather surprised by his death - not because 58 year olds don't die - but because our lives had crossed, peripherally and so he seemed, therefore, so much more alive than he otherwise would have been.

Kim Peek appeared in the ITV show Superhuman Genius, along with my son, Ainan. Now, the two never met, their filming being in different continents, but they did appear in the same show. That fact gave me an awareness of Kim Peek, his life and his particular special qualities beyond that of the casual reader.

It is a far from gentle reminder of the fragility and unpredictabilty of life that Kim Peek should die the year following the TV show.

Kim Peek was primarily known for his phenomenally retentive memory and, by the end of his life, he had mastered fifteen areas, including history, geography, music, sports and literature. Though highly gifted in some ways, he was disabled in others, having poor motor skills, being unable to dress himself and having been born with a separation of both sides of his brain.

He was most famed for being the inspiration behind "Rain Man" - yet I think the real life Kim was far more interesting than the fictional character he inspired.

The world has lost a unique individual, who overcame great personal difficulties, to live a life that touched many people. He made a habit of travelling the world, to talk to large audiences and show them his gifts. In doing so, he helped change people's attitudes towards the disabled.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)