Infant Feeding Affects Adulthood Health
Research Show Accelerated Growth can lead to Obesity and CVD
Aug 30, 2009
The metabolic syndrome is a common situation in developed countries and one out of four US citizens is estimated to have it. The medical disorders resulting from the syndrome, also known as syndrome X, are cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Solid evidence has converged to support the hypothesis that accelerated growth as infants increases the chance of having the metabolic syndrome. Unlike disorders resulting from low nutrition at infancy like beriberi and rickets, this medical situation results from overfeeding of the baby.
Nutritional Programming in an Early Stage
The idea that the nutrition in early stages of life can influence the subject throughout its lifespan was first introduced in the 1930s. It was shown that rats that had restricted energy consumption during their early life had a substantially increased lifespan. Along the years it was further demonstrated on a series of organisms that caloric restriction increases lifespan. On the contrary, there are research papers showing that increased caloric consumption during early life but not after weaning increases the size of rats and the fat deposits of baboons. These animal observations raised the question if such a mechanism also exists in humans.
Human Observations to Support the Hypothesis
The first observation that such a phenomenon is also present in humans was a research that linked low birth weight and the metabolic syndrome. Recently it became clearer that the accelerated growth rate triggers the syndrome since the results are stronger when comparing subjects with the same current weight meaning that the underweight baby had an accelerated growth.
Another several statistical researches link breastfeeding and a decreased chance of having metabolic disorders. Breastfeeding has been shown to have several advantages over formula-feeding related to risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) including blood pressure, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and obesity (e.g. "Breqastfeeding can Prevent Obesity in Children"). Although the mechanism by which breastfeeding protects against CVD is not known it can be related to the prolonged rate of weight gain in breastfed babies compared to formula-fed ones.
The animal models and the statistical research on humans lead to the conclusion that nutrition in early age can influence the onset of metabolic related disorders later in life. Although the mechanism is not fully understood several assumptions have been made including epigenetic changes in genes related to glucose metabolism, adopting different eating habits and a hormonal change that persists in the body.
The relation between accelerated growth rate (centile crossing) early in life and CVD and diabetes risk factors in later stages should be taken into consideration with respect to public health issues and addressed by both parents and healthcare professionals.
More information and references to the researches brought in this article can be found in the review: "Early nutrition and long-term health: a practical approach".
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