A Long and Healthy Life Begins Before Conception
Tim and John had been best friends since they were babies. They were born the same day and met because their mothers shared a hospital room, discovering to their delight they lived in the same neighborhood. When Tim was born he weighed nine pounds five ounces. John weighed five pounds nine ounces. They saw that as a sign they were meant to be friends. Tim liked to go over to John's house because he always had cookies and sweets to eat. John's mother didn't believe much in nutrition, and didn't breastfeed. Tim's mom breastfed him until he was nearly two years old, much to the consternation of John's mother, who thought she was crazy. When Tim was a baby he was round, with a roly-poly stomach. Baby John was rather thin, which his mother liked just fine, since she was obese. As they got older, Tim got thin and John became fat. Tim never had to worry about losing weight, while John fought it, and diabetes, all his life. Nothing he did helped; not diets, not nutrition. Finally John gave up fighting nature. His mother was obese, his grandfather was obese. He believed it was genetics, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. Tim lost his childhood friend when John succumbed to a massive coronary at the age of 35. Genetic Strength Influenced by Prenatal Nutrition
Almost every day we hear scientists have discovered that a defective gene or chromosome has been targeted as causing this disease or that affliction. Abnormal or missing genes, chromosomes or DNA have been blamed for some forms of cancer, Down's syndrome, allergies, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other devastating diseases that shorten and destroy the quality of our lives. According to Leonard Hayflick, Ph.D., noted aging researcher and author of How and Why We Age, the elimination of cardiovascular disease alone would would boost life expectancy by about 14 years. According to the California Health Department, wiping out arteriosclerosis would increase the life expectancy of women in that state to 100 years. Now scientists have discovered that nutritional deficiencies in the mother, while pregnant and even before, can be responsible for causing genetic defects in her baby. They also know that cell and organ development is pretty much complete by six months of age. Whatever is going to happen has been ordained by this time. What this all means is that the time of conception, during fetal growth, and six months after birth is the most crucial period in terms of adult health and longevity in the individual's entire lifespan. Anything that compromises health during this period, such as smoking, drinking or severe stress, is also going to compromise the health and longevity of the baby.
Chronic degenerative diseases, therefore, are basically birth defects. British physician D.J. Barker, MRC, and colleagues at the Environmental Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, South Hampton General Hospital, U.K. use low birth weight to mark the presence of genetic defects. Dr. Barker has shown that when nutrients are missing--even just one--the resultant effect on the rapidly-growing fetal body is so great that serious genetic and physiological abnormalities occur. Anatomically, these abnormalities present themselves as low birthweight, small head circumference, and a lack of body fat and muscle. All aspects of the body are affected, from the balance of cells and the structure of organs, to the production of hormones and sensitivity of skin an d tissues. The affect is so great, the genetic weaknesses are passed on to subsequent generations.
Studies Connect Low Birth Weight Babies with Low Mortality
In a study of 16,000 British adult men and women, the highest death rates and related risks occurred among people who had weighed less than 5.5 pounds at birth. In addition, children with low body weight at one year of age had a higher risk of death from heart disease than heavier children. The records of 5,654 men born in Hertfordshire, England between 1911 and 1930 show that those with the lowest weights at birth and at one year of age had the highest death rate from ischemic heart disease. The rate of death among men who weighed 18 pounds or less at one year of age was almost three times that of men who weighed 27 pounds or more at the same age. The findings suggest that measures that promote growth before and after birth will reduce deaths from ischemic heart disease. Promoting early growth would be especially important for babies of below average birthweight, since heavier weight at one year is accompanied by large reductions in death rates. Dr. Barker says type 2 diabetes, in which there is insulin resistance, should be called "small baby syndrome," since an incredible 30 percent of people born less than 5-1/2 pounds have it. A study found that males born with small stomachs, as adults had higher levels of bad cholesterol and low good cholesterol, and raised blood levels of fibrinogen, which is associated with coronary heart disease.
The study's researchers believe that impaired liver growth in utero, signified by small stomachs, may be an early sign of coronary heart disease. Dr. Michael A. Crawford, Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at Hackney Hospital in London, has spent years studying the effect of nutritional deficiencies on fetal brain development. He says that the risk of central nervous system defects increases dramatically as birth weight falls. A study of children born in Liverpool, England found that since 1967, there has been a three-fold increase in the incidence of cerebral palsy among low birthweight babies. This increase is important because the rates should be going down, due to improvements in medical technology and health education. Similar results have been noted in Sweden, Australia and the United States. In Australia, among low birth weight babies, the incidence of cerebral palsy has risen from 12.1 in 1968 to 64.5 cases in 1985. Scientists believe one of the reasons for these figures is that we are now saving premature babies, the ones most genetically defective, who previously would have died. In a study in Glasgow of 908 babies less than four pounds at birth, it was found that by 4-1/2 years of age, 29 percent had died. Of the survivors, 47 had cerebral palsy, 14 were blind and 11 were deaf. Of the rest, 50 percent had some form of learning disability. Researcher Maureen Hack followed U.S.-born babies and found that those with low head circumference at eight months of age had learning disabilities by the time they were eight years of age.
The importance of good nutrition during the time of conception is exemplified by Arthur Wynn's study of Dutch famine mothers and their offspring. Wynn found that children born to mothers who conceived during the famine had central nervous system defects, but the highest incidence of defects occurred in mothers who received good food during the last part of pregnancy, leading Wynn to contend that the period at and just after conception is just as, or more, important to growth and development as the last two or three trimesters.
A study published by the World Health Federation in Hungary showed that micronutrient supplementation prior to conception not only prevents neural tube birth defects, but prevents a "wide range of congenital disorders," according to Dr. Barker. Barker emphasizes the need for all, not just one or two, nutrients. "One has to remember that no nutrient is an island. No nutrient occurs as a single component." He says nutrients work in clusters and when one single nutrient is missing, there is a high probability that others will be deficient as well. This is especially true of the B vitamins, which are important to brain development, and minerals. For example, magnesium, calcium, potassium and phosphorus, are all equally important to bone and muscle development. All the minerals must be taken together, with the best form being minerals in solution for maximum absorption. If a mother takes mineral supplements in tablet form, but isn't producing enough stomach acid to break it down, that pill might as well be a rock. If she's lucky five percent of the nutrients will be released in her body. If a B vitamin supplement is derived from natural plant sources, freeze-dried, the formula will also contain proven disease-preventing phytochemicals. Thiamine is an important B vitamin. Barker says that the risk of low birthweight babies is ten times higher when thiamine is low in the mother. When a mother is lacking in essential nutrients for her baby's growth, the full genetic potential of the fetus and baby is not released.
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REFERENCES
Barker, D.J.P., "Growth in Utero and Coronary Heart Disease," Nutrition Reviews, v. 54, n. 2, p. S1-7, February 1996.
Barker, D.J.P., "Fetal Origins of Coronary Heart Disease," British Medical Journal, v. 311, n. 6998, p. 171-175, July 15, 1995.
Barker, D.J.P., et al, "Abnormal Liver Growth in Utero and Death from Coronary Heart Disease, British Medical Journal, v. 310, n. 6981, p. 703-705, March 18, 1995.
Barker, D.J.P., et al, "Weight in Infancy and Death from Ischaemic Heart Disease," The Lancet, v. 2, n. 8663, p. 577-581, Sept. 9, 1989.
"Food and Environmental Factors in Human Disease," A symposium. London, June 14-16, 1994.
Scrimshaw, Nevin S., "Nutrition and Health, from Womb to Tomb," Nutrition Today, v. 31, n. 2, p. 55-68, March-April, 1996.