scholarly journals Does maternal nutrition in pregnancy and birth weight influence levels of CHD risk factors in adult life?

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel R. Huxley ◽  
H. Andrew W. Neil

The fetal-origins hypothesis suggests that maternal and fetal nutrition can have a profound and sustained impact on the health of the offspring in adult life. Although there is abundant literature reporting on the associations between birth weight and disease risk factors, only a handful of studies have been able to examine the relationship between maternal nutrition in pregnancy with the health of offspring in adult life directly. Between 1942 and 1944, nearly 400 pregnant women were recruited into a dietary study to determine whether the wartime dietary rations were sufficient to prevent nutritional deficiencies. Detailed biochemical and clinical assessments were conducted for each of the women, who were followed-up until after delivery. More than 50 years later, approximately one-quarter of the adult offspring were recruited into a study to explore the possible impact of maternal nutrition in pregnancy on CHD risk factors, including glucose tolerance, blood pressure and components of the lipid profile. Results from the present study provide no evidence to support the hypothesis that birth weight or maternal nutrition in pregnancy are associated with CHD risk factors in adult life.

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Non-Eleri Thomas ◽  
Stephen-Mark Cooper ◽  
Simon P. Williams ◽  
Julien S. Baker ◽  
Bruce Davies

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between aerobic fitness (AF), fatness, and coronary-heart-disease (CHD) risk factors in 12- to 13-year-olds. The data were obtained from 208 schoolchildren (100 boys; 108 girls) ages 12.9 ± 0.3 years. Measurements included AF, indices of obesity, blood pressure, blood lipids and lipoproteins, fibrinogen, homocysteine, and C-reactive protein. An inverse relationship was found between AF and fatness (p < .05). Fatness was related to a greater number of CHD risk factors than fitness was (p < .05). Further analysis revealed fatness to be an independent predictor of triglyceride and blood-pressure levels (p < .05). Our findings indicate that, for young people, fatness rather than fitness is independently related to CHD risk factors.


2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin Bouziotas ◽  
Yiannis Koutedakis ◽  
Ruth Shiner ◽  
Yiannis Pananakakis ◽  
Vasiliki Fotopoulou ◽  
...  

The prevalence of 14 selected modifiable coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors was determined in randomly selected adolescent boys (n = 117) and girls (n = 93) from provincial Greece. Based on published criteria thresholds for CHD, 45% of boys and 50% of girls exhibited three or more risk factors with time spent on “vigorous” activities, low cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness being among the most frequent in both sexes. Stronger associations were found between cardiorespiratory fitness and time spent on “vigorous” rather than “moderate-to-vigorous” activities in both boys and girls. Regression analysis indicated that energy expenditure (P < .01) in boys and energy expenditure (P < .05) and energy intake (P < .01) in girls could alone explain about 60% of the body-fat related findings in either group. Broadly based primary prevention strategies aimed at children should concentrate on reducing the overall energy intake and increasing the time spent on “vigorous” activities if future Greek adult CHD mortality is to be reduced.


2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. RAVAJA ◽  
T. KAUPPINEN ◽  
L. KELTIKANGAS-JÄRVINEN

Background. We examined whether the relationships between hostility and physiological coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors differ as a function of depressive tendencies (DT).Methods. The participants were 672 randomly selected healthy young adults who self-reported their hostility (anger, cynicism, and paranoia) and DT. The physiological CHD risk factors studied were systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body-mass index, serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and serum triglycerides.Results. We found that hostility was negatively associated with the physiological CHD risk factors among individuals exhibiting high DT while hostility was positively associated with, or unrelated to, the physiological risk factors among individuals showing low DT. The Hostility × DT interaction explained 2 to 5% of the variance in the physiological parameters.Conclusion. The findings suggest that DT have a moderating influence on the relationships between hostility and CHD risk. Despite the established risk factor status of hostility, lack of anger and hostility, when combined with high DT, may represent the most severe exhaustion where the individual has given up. Disregard of this fact may explain some null findings in the research on hostility and CHD risk.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin Bouziotas ◽  
Yiannis Koutedakis

We examined the prevalence of 14 modifiable CHD risk factors in a sample of 210 provincial Greek children as they progressed from age 12 to 14. It was found that 46.2% of boys and 49.5% of girls (p > 0.05) exhibited three or more risk factors at their 12th year, with values of 42% for boys and 51.1% (p > 0.05) for girls for their 13th year, and 29.4% for boys and 55% (p < 0.001) for girls in their 14th year. Risk factors with the highest prevalence in both sexes included low vigorous physical activity, low aerobic fitness, and elevated body fatness. The fact that boys exhibited progressively fewer risk factors with age was mainly attributed to increased time spent on vigorous physical activity (P < 0.001) and higher predicted oxygen intake (P < 0.001) with a concomitant decrease in body fat (P < 0.001). The opposite pattern demonstrated by girls was primarily due to elevated predicted % body fat (P < 0.05), % saturated fat intake (P < 0.05), total cholesterol (TC; P < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; P < 0.001), and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)/TC; P < 0.001). In conclusion, a high percentage of young adolescent Greek boys and girls exhibit three or more modifiable CHD risk factors. However, as the children progress from age 12 to 14, gender differences emerge regarding the development of their CHD risk profiles. The present data support the notion that preventive strategies for combating CHD should begin early in life.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 699
Author(s):  
Willem Philibert ◽  
Allan M. Andersen ◽  
Eric A. Hoffman ◽  
Robert Philibert ◽  
Meeshanthini Dogan

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is preventable, but the methods for assessing risk and monitoring response rely on imprecise lipid-based assessments. Recently, we have shown that an integrated genetic–epigenetic test that includes three methylation-sensitive digital PCR assays predicts 3-year risk for incident CHD better than lipid-based methods. However, whether methylation sites change in response to therapies that alter CHD risk is not known. Therefore, we assessed methylation at these three incident CHD-related sites in DNA from 39 subjects before and after three months of biochemically verified smoking cessation, then analyzed the relationship between change in methylation at each of the sites to the change in smoking intensity as assessed by cg05575921 methylation. We found that, in those who quit smoking, methylation change at one CHD risk marker (cg00300879) was significantly associated with change in cg05575921 methylation (p < 0.04). We conclude that changes in incident CHD-related methylation occur within three months of cessation of smoking, a major risk factor for CHD. This suggests that the effectiveness of treatment of other CHD risk factors, such as high cholesterol, may be similarly quantifiable using epigenetic approaches. Further studies to determine the relationship of changes of methylation status in response to treatment of other CHD risk factors are indicated.


2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Le Clair ◽  
Tina Abbi ◽  
Heather Sandhu ◽  
Paramjit S. Tappia

Epidemiological, clinical, and experimental observations have led to the hypothesis that the risk of developing chronic diseases in adulthood is influenced not only by genetic and adult lifestyle factors, but also by environmental factors during early life. Low birth weight, a marker of intrauterine stress, has been linked to predisposition to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes. The compelling animal evidence and significant human data to support this conclusion are reviewed. Specifically, the review discusses the role of maternal nutrition before and during pregnancy, placental insufficiencies and epigenetic changes in the increased predisposition to diabetes and CVD in adult life. The impact of low birth weight and catch-up growth as they pertain to risk of disease in adult life is also discussed. In addition, adult disease risk in the overnourished fetus is also mentioned. Reference is made to some of the mechanisms of the induction of diabetes and CVD phenotype. It is proposed that fetal nutrition, growth and development through efficient maternal nutrition before and during pregnancy could constitute the basis for nutritional strategies for the primary prevention of diabetes and CVD.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 591-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Stevenson ◽  
Sophia Tsiligiannis ◽  
Nick Panay

Cardiovascular disease, and particularly coronary heart disease (CHD), has a low incidence in premenopausal women. Loss of ovarian hormones during the perimenopause and menopause leads to a sharp increase in incidence. Although most CHD risk factors are common to both men and women, the menopause is a unique additional risk factor for women. Sex steroids have profound effects on many CHD risk factors. Their loss leads to adverse changes in lipids and lipoproteins, with increases being seen in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides, and decreases in high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. There is a reduction in insulin secretion and elimination, but increases in insulin resistance eventually result in increasing circulating insulin levels. There are changes in body fat distribution with accumulation in central and visceral fat which links to the other adverse metabolic changes. There is an increase in the incidence of hypertension and of type 2 diabetes mellitus, both major risk factors for CHD. Oestrogens have potent effects on blood vessels and their loss leads to dysfunction of the vascular endothelium. All of these changes result from loss of ovarian function contributing to the increased development of CHD. Risk factor assessment in perimenopausal women is recommended, thereby permitting the timely introduction of lifestyle, hormonal and therapeutic interventions to modify or reverse these adverse changes.


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