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Obesity may start in the womb
14/05/2008 21:17 - (SA)
Geneva - Exposure in the womb to
common chemicals used to make everything from plastic bottles to
pizza box liners may programme a person to become obese later in
life, US researchers said on Wednesday.
Their studies of mice showed animals exposed to even tiny
amounts of the chemicals during development were fatter when
they grew older compared with mice that were not exposed to the compounds,
they told the 2008 European Congress on Obesity.
"We are talking about an exposure at very low levels for a
finite time during development," said Jerry Heindel of the US
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
"The fact that it is such a sensitive period, it may be
altering the tissue and making people more susceptible to
obesity."
Chemicals also linked to other health problems
Previous studies have linked these chemicals - also found
in water pipes - to cancer and reproductive problems, prompting
a number of countries and US states to consider potential bans
or limits of the compounds, the researchers said.
"One of the problems we are finding is we don't know where
all these chemicals are," said Suzanne Fenton, a research
biologist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, whose
research focused on perfluorooctanoic acid.
Obesity 'could be programmed before birth'
The findings suggested some people could be programmed to
obesity before birth and underscore the need to identify
biomarkers scientists could use to identify people at risk, the
researchers said.
"We are calling this an emerging hypothesis," Heindel said.
"Most of the data is in animals and we want to develop some
biomarkers that could be used in humans.
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