Link Between Prenatal Stress and Obesity, Could Alter the Development of the Baby

Experts from the University of Navarra confirm that a mother's stress from factors such as socio-economic or psycho-social causes can be associated with the development of pathologies related with obesity.

"The growing prevalence of obesity cannot be solely attributed to genetic factors or poor nutrition, but also to lifestyle and adverse environmental factors," Javier Campión said, the lead researcher of this new study, according to a press release. "The said environmental factors could have a bearing on epigenetic mechanisms, which are responsible for the control of genes beyond the genetic code itself".

The authors determined that the fast pace that characterizes society produces an increase in stress rates within the population that rises in parallel with the rates of obesity, making an analysis of the interaction necessary between two factors that affect adult age groups.

Researchers studied two groups of rats-ones with stress and ones without. They examined their offspring with any alterations in the expression of genes related with obesity and the metabolism of glucocorticoids in the white adipose tissue.

"The general conclusion we obtained was that an adverse situation during intrauterine development could lead to animals, due to the ingestion of a hyper-calorific diet, experiencing a greater increase in body fat and biochemical, hormonal and genetic alterations," underlined Campión.

In addition, the authors insisted that these changes at adult age induced by the ingestion of a diet rich in fat and sugars provoked obesity and other associated conditions, such as insulin resistance, the result of which is the development of type-2 diabetes.

The experts concluded that stress, which is a normal part of life, may affect health and could alter the development of the baby and lead to a predisposition towards the development of pathologies during adulthood. Every year, problems relating to obesity are responsible for over 2.8 million deaths throughout the world.

The information regarding the study was published in the magazine Stress.