Someone wrote that a person named Barker said: 'Evolution is completely indifferent to anything affecting death or disease risk after the age of reproduction.' Several anthropological studies have shown that grandmothers can contribute to the reproductive success of their children by helping care for the grandchildren, or by contributing to the household economy in general. This would suggest that any genetic factors contributing to long-term survival of grandmothers would be selected for, long after their own days of reproducing are over. Also, remember that in humans, women can have children til they are 45-50, and they need to survive about 15 years after the birth of the last child in order for that child to have a good chance of surviving. So that puts them at 60-65 years of age already, before they are "after the age of reproduction." It isn't enough to just birth the baby. Kathy Dettwyler _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html