Category: Pregnancy

The seeds of heart disease risk are planted before birth

Once rare, heart disease is now world's leading killer

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.

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The magical, mysterious placenta

What does it have to do with chronic disease?

The placenta is the organ that connects the developing baby to its mother during pregnancy. It is where the mother’s and baby’s blood meet to exchange nutrients. At birth it detaches from the inner wall of the womb and is delivered to the outside world along with the newborn baby.

While the placenta may be one of the least understood organs in the human body, it is arguably one of the most important.

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