You may be worried that any wellness problems you may have will be passed on to your children, but you should be more concerned about your parent’s health. This is according to a new study, published in the journal Endocrinology, which found that health problems linked to weight and obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes, could skip a generation.
With support from the British Heart Foundation, the Medical Research Council and Tommy’s – a baby charity that funds research into pregnancy health – Edinburgh experts found the offspring of obese mothers may be spared health problems linked to obesity, while their own children then inherit them. They noted that obesity rates are higher than they’ve ever been, and this research adds to growing concern about the wellbeing of future generations. Obese mothers were found to make an impact on the birth weight and diabetes risk of grandchildren, despite it being absent in their own children.
For the study, the researchers examined moderately obese female mice fed on a diet high in fat and sugar before and during pregnancy. Moderate obesity is a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 30 and 34.9, and has been linked to breast cancer, colon cancer and stroke, as well as the more commonly cited diabetes and heart disease. The researchers saw virtually no ill effects of obesity in the first generation of mice, but the reasons why the first generation is apparently protected are not fully understood.
The researchers surmised that differences in maternal weight gain during pregnancy or specific food eaten during pregnancy might explain why the first generation is protected. They added that the study could help inform health policy on obesity, and though studying effects of this kind – referred to as developmental programming – in humans would be challenging, it is still possible. According to Dr Amanda Drake, senior clinical research fellow at Edinburgh University, ‘Given the worldwide increase in obesity, it is vital that we gain an understanding of how future generations may be affected. Future studies could look at these trends in humans but they would need to take into account genetics, environmental, social and cultural factors.’