Prenatal exposure to famine heightens risk for later being overweight
2021-05-10
(Press-News.org) An analysis of historical medical records found that men who were prenatally exposed during early gestation to the Dutch famine of 1944-1945 were 30 percent more likely to be overweight with a Body Mass Index of 25 or over at age 19, compared to a similar group not exposed to the famine. Professor L. H. Lumey at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health led the study, which is published in the International Journal of Obesity. The study confirms evidence on the health risks of prenatal famine exposure, which also includes diabetes and schizophrenia.
The mechanism by which famine exposure raises the risk for later excess weight is still unknown. The researchers speculate that famine exposure could lead to changes in DNA methylation that stimulate being overweight. Or that surviving babies might have genetic profiles enabling them to thrive on fewer calories. "If so, it is tragic and ironic that surviving the famine would increase one's risk for obesity," says first author L. H. "Bertie" Lumey, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. "A slower metabolism that would have helped them survive the pandemic, in times of plenty could also contribute to weight problems and related health issues."
The researchers studied heights and weights of 371,100 men in the Netherlands born between 1943 and 1947 and examined for military service at age 19, including men with and without prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine. They found that a heightened overweight risk was present in men with famine exposure starting at the very beginning of gestation, not with exposure starting in the middle or at the end of gestation--a finding they say points to the start of pregnancy as a sensitive period of fetal development.
The study shows that the heightened overweight risk was limited to sons of manual workers born in the large cities of Western Netherlands, consistent with historical evidence on the socioeconomic and geographic populations known to be most affected by the famine.
Not surprisingly, excess weight presented its own risks. Those who were overweight at age 19 had a 30 percent greater mortality risk through age 63 relative to those with a BMI in the normal range. This was independent of famine exposure.
Further development of a 1976 Paper
The new paper extends and refines a 1976 study by Columbia researchers using current definitions of overweight. Contrary to the earlier paper, current analytic approaches show no weight changes in sons of non-manual workers exposed in early gestation in the famine cities. The researchers note that the military examinations did not include waist or hip circumference or other measures of body mass distribution which could be even better indicators of chronic disease risk.
The new study also looked at whether or not a decline in birthrates among manual workers during the famine explained the relationship between prenatal famine exposure and risk for excess weight. It didn't.
"Our study builds on the rigorous science behind the original research in the 1970s led by Columbia epidemiologists Mervyn Susser and Zena Stein," says Lumey.
About the Dutch Famine
The Dutch famine (Hunger Winter) of 1944-45 was a period of civilian famine under German occupation at the end of World War II. Contemporary reports show that the famine was concentrated in the large cities of the Western Netherlands. It was limited to the last months of the war in the period between November 1944 and the surrender of the German forces to the Allies in May 1945. After Liberation, food supplies were rapidly distributed across the country. The food crisis provides an opportunity to study the relationship between maternal nutrition in pregnancy and offspring health.
Previous research, beginning shortly after the end of the war found a link between famine-exposed mothers and birth weight. Subsequent research established links between famine exposure and risk for obesity, diabetes, and schizophrenia, as well as the specific genomic pathways involved. Importantly, the research also ruled out a link between famine exposure and mental retardation.
INFORMATION:
Study Authors and Funding
Co-authors include Peter Ekamper, Govert Bijwaard, and Frans van Poppel of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) and the University of Groningen, Netherlands; and Gabriella Conti, University College London.
Funding for the research work was provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AG028593-01A2, 2AG028593-07, AG066887), European Research Council under the European Union Horizon Research and Innovation Program (819752).
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-05-10
MRSA skin infections are often treated with intravenous injection of antibiotics, which can cause significant side effects and promote the development of resistant bacterial strains. To solve these problems, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden are developing a microneedle patch that delivers antibiotics directly into the affected skin area. New results published in Advanced Materials Technologies show that the microneedle patch effectively reduces MRSA bacteria in the skin.
MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) skin infections are potentially lethal, ...
2021-05-10
A new approach to tackling viruses by targeting the 'control centre' in viral RNA could lead to broad spectrum anti-viral drugs and provide a first line of defence against future pandemics, according to new research at the University of Birmingham.
In a new study, published in Angewandte Chemie, researchers have shown how this approach could be effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier modelling and in vitro analysis by the team and published in Chemical Science has also shown effectiveness against the HIV virus.
Professor Mike Hannon, from the University of Birmingham's School of Chemistry, is co-lead author ...
2021-05-10
Captive pelicans that are free to choose their own friendships are more likely to breed successfully on repeated occasions, new research suggests.
Social network analysis on captive great white pelicans, led by the University of Exeter, found that providing social choice within the flock and allowing partnerships to form naturally led to improved breeding success.
The study revealed that the pelicans chose their specific social relationships, and that there was a social structure across the flock, in which sub-adults (the equivalent of teenagers) spent more time with each other than with adult birds.
Zoo-housed pelicans are common, but their breeding record is poor and they receive little ...
2021-05-10
FRANKFURT. The virostatic agent remdesivir was developed to disrupt an important step in the propagation of RNA viruses, to which SARS-CoV-2 also belongs: the reproduction of the virus's own genetic material. This is present as RNA matrices with which the host cell directly produces virus proteins. To accelerate the production of its own proteins, however, RNA viruses cause the RNA matrices to be copied. To do so, they use a specific protein of their own (an RNA polymerase), which is blocked by remdesivir. Strictly speaking, remdesivir does not do this itself, but rather a substance that is synthesized from remdesivir in five steps when remdesivir penetrates a cell.
In ...
2021-05-10
A new Dartmouth-led study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, has found that the disproportionate use of premiums within child-targeted TV advertising for children's fast-food meals is deceptive. The researchers examined thousands of advertisements from 11 fast-food restaurants, but one company--McDonald's--accounted for nearly all the airtime and, as a result, the findings.
The researchers report that these ads often overemphasize premiums such as toy giveaways and games relative to the primary product being sold, the fast food itself. This marketing practice violates the industry's own guidelines--put in place to ensure that the use of premiums in ads is not deceptive or unfair--as young children lack the cognitive ability ...
2021-05-10
Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this review the authors Yuheng Bao, Jifan Chen, Pintong Huang and Weijun Tong from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China discuss the synergistic effects of acoustics-based therapy and immunotherapy in cancer treatment.
Cancer immunotherapy to enhance the autogenous immune response to cancer tissue is reported to be a promising method for cancer treatment. After the release of damage-associated molecular patterns, dendritic cells mature and recruit activated T cells to induce immune response.
To trigger the release of cancer associated antigens, cancer acoustics-based therapy has various prominent advantages and has been reported in various research. ...
2021-05-10
In a retrospective study of trauma patients over 65 years of age attended by KSS, it was found that, although a number of these patients had sustained a minor injury through seemingly innocuous mechanisms, a high proportion of this group required advanced clinical interventions and subsequent tertiary level care at a major trauma centre.
The study also identified that dispatch time to these patients was typically longer, in particular in instances when KSS's critical care was requested by an ambulance crew already in attendance.
With response time often critical to patient outcomes, the ...
2021-05-10
Soon after E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey appeared in 2015, the book market was inundated with a flood of erotic bestsellers. People from all corners began wondering what this type of novel's secret of success could be. Now, a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, has taken a closer look at the readership of erotic novels and investigated the causes of this literary predilection.
In the media as well as the academy, contemporary erotica is typically dismissed as being of low literary value. Critics and scholars tend to classify its readers as having mediocre to poor taste, without, however, examining ...
2021-05-10
Twenty dollars a month might not seem like a lot to pay for health insurance. But for people getting by on $15,000 a year, it's enough to make some drop their coverage - especially if they're healthy, a new study of Medicaid expansion participants in Michigan finds.
That could keep them from getting preventive or timely care, and could leave their insurance company with a sicker pool of patients than before, say the researchers from the University of Michigan and University of Illinois Chicago. They have published their findings as a working paper through the National Bureau of Economic Research, ahead of publication in the American Journal of Health Economics.
The study has implications for other states that require ...
2021-05-10
DURHAM, N.C. - A potential new vaccine developed by members of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute has proven effective in protecting monkeys and mice from a variety of coronavirus infections -- including SARS-CoV-2 as well as the original SARS-CoV-1 and related bat coronaviruses that could potentially cause the next pandemic.
The new vaccine, called a pan-coronavirus vaccine, triggers neutralizing antibodies via a nanoparticle. The nanoparticle is composed of the coronavirus part that allows it to bind to the body's cell receptors and is formulated with a chemical booster called an adjuvant. ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Prenatal exposure to famine heightens risk for later being overweight
