Slower you grow, the longer you live: study

Bodies which grow quickly accumulate greater tissue damage, with life-shortening results, according to a new study.

A team from Glasgow University looked at growth patterns in stickleback fish and altered the growth rate of 240 fish by exposing them to brief cold or warm spells, putting them ahead or behind their normal growth schedule, a media report said.

Researchers noticed the fish got back on track once their environmental temperature was returned to normal, but the change in growth rate affected their rate of ageing.

The slow-growing fish lived for around 30 per cent longer than the stickleback's two-year average, with a lifespan of nearly 1,000 days.

The lifespan of the fast-growing fish was 15 per cent shorter than normal.

Professor Neil Metcalfe, from the university's Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, saidthe 'striking' results occurred despite all the fish reaching the same adult size.

“You might well expect a machine built in haste to fail quicker than one put together carefully and methodically, and our study suggests that this may be true for bodies too,” he said.

“The results of the study are striking. It appears that bodies which grow quickly accumulate greater tissue damage than those that grow more slowly, and their lifespan is substantially reduced as a result,” Metcalfe said.

“These findings are likely to apply to many other species, including humans, since

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