Children of starving mothers are more likely to develop diabetes

The researchers registered the new cases (incidence) between 2012 and 2017. “All insured patients aged over 50 and under 100 years were examined,” the researchers report in a broadcast. Of these approximately 3.5 million people, 746,184 were treated for diabetes. “In men born during the two severe famines in 1939 and 1946/1947, the number of new diabetes cases in the period 2013-2017 is up to 78 percent higher than in comparable years, and in women up to 59 percent higher,” the members of the Complexity write. Science Hub Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna. According to Klimek, people born two years before the famine were used as a comparison group.

Klimek: “We should not only focus on lifestyle factors”
“Our results clearly show that public health efforts to combat diabetes should not focus solely on lifestyle factors,” says Klimek. Among other things, one should take into account the nutrition of the expectant mothers during pregnancy, as well as the food supply in early childhood.

According to the current state of science, the reason for the increased disease risk in children due to years of famine is “epigenetic” changes in the genetic material. This affects the reading of the genetic code. As a result, the metabolism of the unborn child is necessarily adjusted to deficiency conditions. “If this cannot be proven later in life, it results in maladaptation leading to increased metabolic rate and cardiovascular disease in these birth cohorts,” the researchers write.