September 16, 2004Science
Living with the Past: Evolution, Development, and Patterns of Disease
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Discussion
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Implication
Narrative review reveals early-life environmental exposures shape adult chronic disease risk, indicating profound biological and socioeconomic implications.
Key Points
- Evaluate the hypothesis that early environmental exposures during periconceptual, fetal, and infant life stages influence susceptibility to chronic noncommunicable diseases in adulthood.
- Synthesized epidemiological evidence linking early developmental conditions to adult noncommunicable disease patterns.
- Integrated comparative insights across evolutionary biology, developmental biology, and animal and human physiology.
- Environmental factors operating during periconceptual, fetal, and infant life interact with genetics and adult lifestyle to alter chronic disease propensity.
- The developmental origins of health and disease framework highlights early-life phenotypic plasticity as a key driver of lifelong physiological function and metabolic risk.
Cite This Study
Gluckman et al. (2004) studied this question.