The “early life” origins of obesity‐related health disorders

New discoveries regarding the intergenerational transmission of developmentally programmed traits in the global cardiometabolic health crisis

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8312293
AutoresDaniel C Benyshek (0000-0002-1579-5497, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV 89154‐5003, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume152
FascículoS57
Páginas79-93
Data de publicação2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.22393
PMID24249592
OpenAlexW1497229422
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas135

Popular media reports concerning the causes of the current global obesity pandemic and its related sequelae—the cardiometabolic syndrome—are often couched in terms of dramatic changes in diet and lifestyle around the world; namely, drastically increasing dietary intakes of high energy foods and plummeting levels of daily physical activity—the hallmarks of the so called “nutrition transition.” Far less attention is generally drawn to the important role phenotypic plasticity during early life (i.e., “developmental programming”) plays in the cardiometabolic health crisis. Recently, however, researchers working within the field of the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and epigenetics have extended our understanding of the role played by these developmental processes and capacities in health and disease even further by investigating the transmissible nature of developmentally programmed cardiometabolic traits to subsequent generations. In this review, after briefly revisiting the fundamental discoveries of first‐generation DOHaD research, I consider how recent discoveries regarding the transmissibility of developmentally acquired traits are providing new insights into the current global cardiometabolic pandemic, and how a better understanding of developmental programming—including transmissibility—are essential for the conceptualization and implementation of public health initiatives aimed at stemming this global health crisis. Am J Phys Anthropol 57:79–93, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Conceptualization · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Developmental psychology · Disease · Environmental health · Global health · Obesity · Pandemic · Pathology · Public health · Birth, Development, and Health · Diet and metabolism studies · Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging · Medicine · Psychology · Gerontology