PET PET
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
Become a Friend Donate
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements
PETBioNewsReviewsRadio Review: The First 1,000 Days - A Legacy for Life (In the Womb)

BioNews

Radio Review: The First 1,000 Days - A Legacy for Life (In the Womb)

Published 22 August 2011 posted in Reviews and appears in BioNews 621

Author

Rosemary Paxman

Image by Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics via Wikimedia Commons. Depicts a DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the centre cytosine.
CC BY-SA 3.0
Image by Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics via Wikimedia Commons. Depicts a DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the centre cytosine.

In this first episode of a new documentary series, medical correspondent Dr Mark Porter investigated how developmental events in the womb have an astonishing impact on long-term adult health...


The First 1,000 Days: A Legacy for Life - In the Womb

BBC Radio 4, Tuesday 16 August 2011

'The First 1,000 Days: A Legacy for Life - In the Womb', BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 17 March 2010


In this first episode of a new documentary series, medical correspondent Dr Mark Porter investigated how developmental events in the womb have an astonishing impact on long-term adult health.

During this week's programme, titled 'In the Womb', Dr Porter discussed with healthcare professionals the impact of nutritional imbalances during fetal development and how these can be linked to conditions such as stroke, heart failure and type 2 diabetes. This notion stems from the argument that your susceptibility to developing such illnesses is influenced by the first 1000 days of life - roughly from conception to your second birthday.

The importance of a healthy lifestyle and its impact on child development has been the focus of numerous studies. Ideas about what this involves are constantly evolving — I'm sure our parents' and grandparents' generations had different ideas about this! But how lifestyles and early development affect our vulnerability to chronic diseases is less well known.

Professor Kent Thornburg, Director of the Heart Research Center at Oregon Health and Science University, highlighted the significance of a mother's lifestyle on a baby's development. 'Nutrition is very important at this time. The body is building its structures in a way which will be important to preventing disease later in life', he said.

David Barker, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Southampton, has his own ideas. The 'Barker Theory' links the risk of developing conditions in adulthood to nutrition in the womb with low weight birth babies being at higher risk. At present, we treat the adult when they develop chronic conditions. But do we need to include lifespan when understanding a person's state of health?

Every human system, function and organ has a critical period of development, explained Professor Barker. These occur at different times for different organs with almost all occurring in the womb. It follows that an organ's final ability to function may be compromised if there is a lack of nutrients during its development.

This has been illustrated by Alan Jackson, Paediatrician and Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Southampton. His research showed slowing organ growth during development stays with people through life. One example is nephron formation in the kidneys: the fewer nephrons a baby develops, the harder it is to produce urine and maintain a healthy salt balance. This is thought to increase the likelihood of having high blood pressure as an adult.

Birth weight alone is a crude measurement of nutrition in the womb and placenta size should also be considered, explained Professor Barker. 'It is efficient to have lots of baby and not much placenta and in 20 years we have seen that a small baby and big placenta is highly adverse in the long term', he said.

Nutritional flow influences what kind of placenta is made. If a small placenta is made, the baby's heart has to work harder to push blood around - increasing its blood pressure. This can lead to the baby developing a stiffer heart with fewer cells, possibly leading to heart disease. Furthermore, such developments don't become apparent until later in life when heart failure sets in.

Dr Porter finished the documentary by looking to the future and throwing down a healthcare challenge. How does such pioneering research influence the way we treat disease in the future? If chronic disease is the body's response to variations in the normal development process, can we use this as a strategy to prevent it?

The idea of waiting for a disease to become develop and then fixing the problem could be the wrong approach. Preventative medicine encourages adults to adopt a healthy lifestyle by not smoking, eating well and exercising. Dr Porter concluded by suggesting a close monitoring of parents' and babies' nutritional intake during child development could be a worthwhile addition to preventative care.

Sources and References

  • 17/08/2011
    BBC Radio Four
    The First 1000 Days: A Legacy for Life

Related Articles

PET BioNews
Reviews
18 November 2013 • 4 minutes read

Book Review: Life's Vital Link

by Rhys Baker

In this book on the placenta, the shortest-lived human organ, we find out about the fascinating immunological paradox of pregnancy as well as the effects of maternal, paternal, and even retroviral genes in the functioning of the placenta...

Image by Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics via Wikimedia Commons. Depicts a DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the centre cytosine.
CC BY-SA 3.0
Image by Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics via Wikimedia Commons. Depicts a DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the centre cytosine.
Reviews
5 September 2011 • 3 minutes read

Radio Review: The First 1,000 Days, A Legacy for Life - Future Generations

by Rosemary Paxman

The immediate impact of environmental factors like diet, smoking and stress on health are well understood. But less is known about how your lifestyle can directly effect the health of your unborn children and grandchildren...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Comment
20 December 2010 • 3 minutes read

Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS)

by Dr Carolina Gemma and 1 others

In recent years, significant progress has been made in identifying some of the genetic factors that underlie common complex diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension and cancer. This has been possible due to the genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach that involves comparing genetic variants in large numbers of individuals that have the disease versus those that do not...

Image by Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics via Wikimedia Commons. Depicts a DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the centre cytosine.
CC BY-SA 3.0
Image by Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics via Wikimedia Commons. Depicts a DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the centre cytosine.
Reviews
13 December 2010 • 3 minutes read

Radio Review: Frontiers - Epigenetics

by Dr Sandy Raeburn

This Frontiers programme challenged three genetic dogmas. The presenter quoted a recent Observer headline on epigenetics: 'Why everything we were told about evolution was wrong!'...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
News
8 November 2010 • 1 minute read

Epigenetic effects of stress being slowly uncovered

by Dr Christopher Chatterton

New research suggests that the impact of stress may be passed on from one generation to the next, and that psychiatric illness may have some degree of 'epigenetic heritability'....

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

« Event Review: Clinically Relevant Findings in Research

Data-Label The UK's Leading Supplier Of Medical Labels & Asset Labels


easyfundraising
amazon

This month in Reviews

  • Popular
  • Recent
13 November 2023 • 3 minutes read

TV Review: Stranger in My Family

6 November 2023 • 4 minutes read

Exhibition Review: Real Families – Stories of change

30 October 2023 • 3 minutes read

TV Review: DNA – Series two

16 October 2023 • 5 minutes read

Book Review: Patient 1 – Forgetting and finding myself

9 October 2023 • 4 minutes read

Podcast Review: The Gift – Fraud

27 November 2023 • 4 minutes read

Podcast Review: The Gift – Health

20 November 2023 • 5 minutes read

Event Review: The Science of Integrated Human Embryo Models

20 November 2023 • 4 minutes read

Podcast Review: The Gift – Mistakes

13 November 2023 • 3 minutes read

TV Review: Stranger in My Family

6 November 2023 • 4 minutes read

Exhibition Review: Real Families – Stories of change

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2023 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
PET PET

PET is an independent charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Navigation

  • About Us
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • BioNews
  • Events
  • Engagement
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us

BioNews

  • News
  • Comment
  • Reviews
  • Elsewhere
  • Topics
  • Glossary
  • Newsletters

Other

  • My Account
  • Subscribe

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2023 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856