Developmental origins unravel the root causes
While COVID-19 has reached pandemic proportions, it is not the only pandemic we are facing.
In the U.S., the severity of COVID-19 is associated with preexisting, chronic conditions. In addition to age, the CDC lists cancer, kidney disease, lung disease, weakened immune system, obesity, serious heart conditions and type 2 diabetes among the most common underlying conditions that portend a severe infection.
Heart disease, rare only a century ago, is now the most common cause of death worldwide. Many explanations for this meteoric rise have been put forth, but most have fallen well short of explaining how this once rare chronic disease could kill the equivalent of the population of Portland, Oregon each year.
About 25 years ago an English epidemiologist named David Barker found that areas of England with high rates of infant deaths following WWII had high rates of adult death from heart disease 50 years later.
It won’t surprise anyone to hear that boys and girls are very different creatures, but to find that these differences are noticeable at the earliest stages of development has surprised even scientists. Differences in growth patterns are seen from the moment of fertilization and have long-term implications for adult health.
Upon fertilization, an egg is already carrying the entire genetic blueprint of a new individual, including the sex,
January is a time to think about positive changes, and often our resolutions have to do with health and healthy eating. As you work toward meeting your resolutions this year, take heart and get some added motivation by knowing that your food choices today may eradicate chronic diseases by the end of the century. Incredible, right? But true.
A growing body of research has given us new insight into the origins of chronic disease and indicates that susceptibility to diseases like obesity,