Painter Stone – Staff Writer
The University of Wyoming’s breakthrough research involving maternal obesity being linked to “aging of metabolic problems” was officially published by the Physiological society. On Oct. 7, the 40-page paper with research from the Wyoming Pregnancy and Life Course Health Center and the Reproductive Biology Department of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición in Mexico City details intense research done to rats in a laboratory environment.
The study followed the rat offspring of obese mothers throughout an entire lifespan from to determine how fast the rats aged. The research found obesity impairs metabolism and increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes among offspring. They also found that exercise among the offspring of the obese mother was beneficial to future generations of the rats.
“[Humans] have lost the plot!” lead researcher Peter Nathanielsz from the UWs Pregnancy and Life Course Health Center said. “You never see a fat baboon on the savannah in Kenya because they’re moving from one breeding ground to another all the time. What do we do? We get in the automobile and go to the restaurant or the food store, and then what do we do? We pick up food that is inappropriate to our biology.”
The study provides evidence that obesity in America is a current and future problem, and it starts in the womb.
“Your lifespan is related to your mother’s BMI…,” Nathanielsz said, “what is society going to do about it?”
Nathanielsz warned about the obesity crisis, as well as what we scientifically know to be true. He said “this is all part of a very big story, for developmental programming. And, it’s been reaching a crescendo over the past 15 years, which is a short space of time in science.”
Nathanielsz put special emphasis on how poor conditions in the womb can lead to health consequences of the child, including heart disease and other conditions.
“In our society where we have lost thought completely, as far as controlling our body rates, the big challenge to the next generation is overnutrition in the uterus,” said Nathanielsz.
Nathanielsz said he recognizes the struggle of trying to tackle the obesity crisis and said he feels strongly toward preventing childhood health complications and an obese future.
“We can help people to decide to take nutritional steps to decrease their obesity, and that’s the next step, of course… but I am not optimistic, the confectionery industry (chocolates, chewing gum, and candy), and the tobacco industry will only give up its riches with great fight,” Nathanielsz said. “The answer to this is to understand that we cannot get away with us pretending that we are different people then we are… That is what is needed to stop the obesity epidemic, and an epidemic is what it is, and… it is not politically correct unfortunately to dwell on this, but fortunately or unfortunately I no longer care what people think about what I say, and it’s right”
