14 DAY TRIAL // Healthcare experts determined in previous studies that infants born with reduced weight tended to become obese later in life, a lot more so than their peers with a normal birth weight. A new research sheds light on the mechanisms underlying this correlation.
Scientists discovered that the primary reason for which this happens is that the brains of low-weight babies do not develop sufficient neurons in a portion of the cortex that is responsible for controlling food intake.
As such, when these children become adults, they cannot exercise restraint on eating, because their brains can't establish when the body has had enough to eat. Obesity is the most common side-effect.
In the new study, which appears in the March 9 issue of the esteemed scientific journal Brain Research, experts say that nutritionally deprived newborns are literally hardwired to eat more.
Science Blog reports that the research was carried out by experts at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed). The type of nutrition would-be mothers have during the early stages of pregnancy is therefore critical to the baby's well-being later.
The researchers say that the seeds of compulsive overeating are sown in the stem cells themselves, a long time before the actual birth. The inadequate weight that the infants have when they step into the world is also an effect of poor nutrition on the part of the mother.
Using animal models, the experts looked at the neural stem cells of newborns, and determined that they exhibited a lot less division and differentiation than normal. In past studies, it has been shown that this is usually followed by an accelerated, catch-up type of growth.
In turn, this puts the children at an increased risk of developing adult obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis during their adult lives. Cognitive and/or behavioral alterations are also a common side-effect.
“This study demonstrates the importance of maternal nutrition and health in reducing obesity. Obesity and its related diseases are the leading cause of death in our society, yet we have few effective strategies for prevention or treatment,” says expert Dr. Mina Desai.
“These studies suggest maternal nutrition could play a critical role in preventing obesity and related disease,” adds the expert, a principal investigator at LA BioMed who is also the corresponding author of the new research.