Mother got nutrients for healthy child,now grandchild is the target

The Indian Council of Medical Research and the Medical Research Council,UK,have jointly given multi-crore grants for further studies in Pune and the UK that focus on the prevention of foetal programming of diabetes by concentrating on the health of young girls.

Dr Chittaranjan Yajnik,director of Pune’s KEM Hospital’s diabetes unit that has worked on the project with the University of Southampton,says nutrition during pregnancy and pre-pregnancy has a significant impact on mothers’ health and the growth and development of the baby.

Nutritionist Himangi Lubree,working on the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study,says the first study covered 700 pregnant women whose children are now involved in the programme. “We have been assessing their height,weight and skin folds after every six months. With most of the adolescents in the age group 15-17,the study will now focus on providing interventions in the form of multi-micro-nutrients to eventually look at what effect it would have on their children,” says Lubree.

Nearly 20 years ago,David Barker,professor of Epidemiology at University of Southampton,had observed that low birth weight was associated with an increased risk of adult diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD),says Dr Caroline Fall of the university. Implicit now in these studies is the programming hypothesis that improving the nutrition of girls and women could prevent common chronic diseases in future generations,she says.

Based on studies by the KEM diabetes unit,the multi-crore study has been undertaken to promote the growth of the baby and reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Joining KEM and University of Southampton is the Warwick Medical School.

“We are,without doubt,facing an obesity epidemic in this country. With each generation we are becoming more overweight and developing more cases of associated conditions such as diabetes and heart disease,” says Dr Ponnusamy Saravanan,associate clinical professor in diabetes,endocrine and metabolism at the University of Warwick. “We have found that mothers with low vitamin B12 gave birth to babies with features suggestive of them developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases soon after birth and at six years…. So this very early ‘in-utero’ stage can be critical in mapping out your adult health.”

Children who survive nutritional insults during early life are at a high risk of developing diseases like type 2 diabetes,obesity and cardiovascular diseases in later life. According to estimates by the ICMR spanning four states,62.4 million people in India are afflicted with diabetes and another 77.2 million with pre-diabetes,facts that have earned India the tag “world’s diabetes capital”. WHO estimates that more than 346 million people worldwide have diabetes.