Stress in Early Life Elevates the Risk of Obesity in Adulthood

New research found that stress experienced early in life ups the risk of  obesity in adulthood.

Researchers at the Aarhus University present another cause that triggers obesity and overweight during adulthood. They reveal that unborn children who are exposed to severe stress in the womb have an elevated risk of being overweight or developing obesity as adults. 

Prior to this, researchers had revealed how severe stress experienced by pregnant women triggers weight problems in children between the ages of 10-13 years. But this is the first time that the study has presented the correlation between stress during pregnancy and the risk of developing obesity as an adult.

"Overall our results indicate that stress can create a programming of the unborn child that makes it susceptible to putting on weight after birth," says PhD Lena Hohwu from the Department of Public Health at Aarhus University. "So even though we still have a lot of research to do in this area, we have added a little piece to our understanding of why we are experiencing an obesity epidemic, in which one in five children in Denmark are overweight - and where most of them will remain overweight as adults."

The finding is based on the analysis of the data that included 119,908 young men that were examined during 2006-2011. The researchers had measured their body mass index or BMI.

In this study they basically focused on those women who faced the death of a close relative just before or during the pregnancy.  The male children of these women were followed until early adulthood.

The researchers observed that men whose mothers were exposed to bereavement, depending on the relationship of the relative to the mother, had varying degrees of increased risk of obesity. The male child had a two-fold increased risk of developing obesity if the women lost their husbands.

"We have specifically investigated the stress factor that occurs when the child's mother loses a close relative just before or during pregnancy, that is, before the child is born. We have designated this as 'an indicator of severe stress' that can double the risk of developing obesity in adulthood," says Lena Hohwu.

The researchers are currently examining whether there are other general effects of stress.

The study was documented in  PLOS One.