OREGON, USA — Did you know your grandmother's health while she was pregnant affects your health today? Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) are studying exactly how that works.
Though it’s well known a pregnant mother’s health affects her baby, research is suggesting nutrition is more important than we ever knew.
“What we discovered is the way you grow before you're born determines your likelihood of having any number of chronic diseases,” said Kent Thornburg, a professor and researcher at OHSU, who specializes in epigenetics, the study of how behaviors and environment can change the way your genes work.
Thornburg said, in short, your grandmother’s health affects your health.
“If you take any woman on the street, the egg that made her was made inside her mother when her mother was a fetus,” Thornburg said.
Now, Thornburg is working with two research scientists, Scarlett Hopkins and Bert Boyer.
“We're really hoping to see how the diet the mothers eat is really influencing the baby,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins and Boyer have worked with people in Alaska for more than 20 years. Their current study involves 70 pregnant women whose babies they'll monitor after birth.
Their initial research found the diabetes risk of people from the Yupik tribe was lower than the general U.S. population, even though the obesity level was similar.
“Perhaps the traditional Yupik diet, rich in these polyunsaturated fats, has epigenetically modified the DNA of individuals in a way that it can be inherited through multiple generations,” Boyer said.
The current study is especially crucial to understanding how diet affects a growing baby. The study involves older women who've eaten more marine animals and fish, as well as younger women who've eaten more processed foods.
The hope is that the research helps moms-to-be better understand the importance of nutrition, as well as its role in reducing rising rates of chronic diseases, like diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease.
Thornburg said it's possible our grandparents' diets may offer some protection for people just starting to eat poorer diets.