Children and young adults who have to live through famine conditions face an increased risk of developing heart disease later in life, Dutch researchers reported today.
The findings are the latest to come from studies of young people who lived through a severe famine in the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War.
Experts say the findings demonstrate the important of healthy diet for children and young people to ensure health later in life.
Researchers from the University Medical Centre Utrecht and the University of Amsterdam studied the fate of nearly 8,000 women who lived through the famine in their youth.
They found that those who were aged between ten and 17 during the famine faced a 38 per cent increased risk of developing heart disease later in life.
Researcher Annet van Abeelen said: "Our study pinpoints the crucial role childhood plays in adult health. More knowledge in this field may lead to unique opportunities for prevention in the future.
"Our study indicates that growth that has been hampered by undernutrition in later childhood, followed by a subsequent recovery, may have metabolic consequences that contribute to an increased risk of diseases later in adulthood."
Writing in the journal Professor Kausik Ray, of St George’s, University of London, UK, says:"These results add further weight to the suggestion that adolescence is a particularly sensitive period open to epigenetic modifications and that dietary mismatch in post-famine nutritional availability contributes to coronary disease risk."
Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, added: “Fortunately, the problems of famine seen in other countries have not been an issue in the UK in recent times. But that doesn’t make this study irrelevant for us. It adds to the importance of providing a healthy diet for children and young people because of the way it can shape their future heart health.”
Cardiovascular consequences of famine in the young. Annet F.M. van Abeelen et al. European Heart Journal August 25 2011. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehr228
Leave a Reply