Week 10 Post 1

 DOHaD- Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Dr. David Barker 

• men in poorer regions of England had significantly higher heart disease rate which at the time was thought to be a condition of affluence
• Why? He believed he was on to something when he discovered that places with high heart disease also had high infant mortality

-There could be a link the though

-Fetal origins of health-poor nutrition in the womb

Medical community hated him! They tried to prove him wrong but couldn't

No longer a hypothesis...proven fact

Origins of chronic disease:

-Initiated in utero and involve not just genes from your parents but also how your organs develop in response to factors like nutrition (also controls gene expression)

First 1000 days=maximum developmental plasticity 

"Man brings all that he has or can have into the world with him. Man is born like a garden ready planted and sown." -William Blake

Start: (research by David Barker and Clyde Osmond)

• Over a 50-year time period, people categorized as being poor because of their habitat had significantly higher rates of heart disease. They also died younger. 
• Found that 50 years earlier, these same areas had higher rates of infant mortality. 
• Link? Some vulnerability that originated during childhood (hypothesis)

Trouble With Data-Victorian London

• Girls who were well-fed farm girls, came to city to find work as house-maids. Under-payed but well fed. They were healthy and gave birth to healthy babies. 

Turn of 20th Century: 

• Great Britain concerned: 1/10 infants did not survive to 1st birthday
• 2/3 men who volunteered for Boer War were rejected due to general bad health

Ethel Margaret-hired to help combat the problem (basically head midwife)

• required midwives to take strict notes
• The Hertfordshire Records-detailed birth-1 year weight and health
• Barker found all of them and followed up

Hypothesis confirmed: Link between less than ideal environment in womb, low birth weight, and increase risk of heart disease during adult life. 

Finlayson, Judith. You Are What Your Grandparents Ate: What You Need to Know about Nutrition, Experience, Epigenetics and the Origins of Chronic Disease. Robert Rose, 2020.