Castration could help men to live LONGER: Removing the testes of male sheep lets them live up to 60 per cent longer by delaying the aging of DNA — and the same principles could apply to humans too, study claims
- It is well established that women tend to live significantly longer lives than men
- University of Otago-led experts studied how sheep age by looking at their DNA
- They found the ‘epigenetic’ clocks of male sheep tick faster than the females’
- However, castrated male sheep have similar DNA methylation patterns to ewes
- The team believe that male hormones play a role in accelerating biological aging
- Shrek — a famous castrated ram from New Zealand — notably lived to age 16
- This is six years longer than might otherwise have been expected for a sheep