ScienceDaily: Programmed for Obesity: Exposure to Common Chemicals

[Guest guest]

Comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://health.

 

 

Programmed For Obesity: Early Exposure To Common Chemicals Can

Permanently Alter Metabolic System

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070218140845.htm

 

Science Daily — Obesity is generally discussed in terms of caloric

intake (how much a person eats) and energy output (how much a person

exercises). However, according to a University of Missouri-Columbia

scientist, environmental chemicals found in everyday plastics and

pesticides also may influence obesity. Frederick vom Saal, professor

of biological sciences in MU's College of Arts and Science, has

found that when fetuses are exposed to these chemicals, the way

their genes function may be altered to make them more prone to

obesity and disease.

 

" Certain environmental substances called endocrine-disrupting

chemicals can change the functioning of a fetus's genes, altering a

baby's metabolic system and predisposing him or her to obesity. This

individual could eat the same thing and exercise the same amount as

someone with a normal metabolic system, but he or she would become

obese, while the other person remained thin. This is a serious

problem because obesity puts people at risk for other problems,

including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and

hypertension, " vom Saal said.

 

Using lab mice, vom Saal has studied the effects of endocrine-

disrupting chemicals, including bisphenol-A, which recently made

news in San Francisco, where controversy has ensued over an

ordinance that seeks to ban its use in children's products. In vom

Saal's recent study, which he will present at the 2007 Annual

Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

(AAAS), he found that endocrine-disrupting chemicals cause mice to

be born at very low birth weights and then gain abnormally large

amounts of weight in a short period of time, more than doubling

their body weight in just seven days. Vom Saal followed the mice as

they got older and found that these mice were obese throughout their

lives. He said studies of low-birth-weight children have shown a

similar overcompensation after birth, resulting in lifelong obesity.

" The babies are born with a low body weight and a metabolic system

that's been programmed for starvation. This is called a 'thrifty

phenotype,' a system designed to maximize the use of all food taken

into the body. The problem comes when the baby isn't born into a

world of starvation, but into a world of fast food restaurants and

fatty foods, " vom Saal said.

 

More research must be done to determine which chemicals cause this

effect. According to vom Saal, there are approximately 55,000

manmade chemicals in the world, and 1,000 of those might fall into

the category of endocrine disrupting. These chemicals are found in

common products, from plastic bottles and containers to pesticides

and electronics.

 

" You inherit genes, but how those genes develop during your very

early life also plays an important role in your propensity for

obesity and disease. People who have abnormal metabolic systems have

to live extremely different lifestyles in order to not be obese

because their systems are malfunctioning, " vom Saal said. " We need

to figure out what we can do to understand and prevent this. "

" Perinatal Programming of Obesity: Interaction of Nutrition and

Environmental Exposures " is the title of vom Saal's AAAS

presentation. Also presenting with vom Saal at the AAAS symposium

are Reth Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health

Sciences, Bruce Blumberg of the University of California-Irvine,

George Corcoran of Wayne State University and James O'Callaghan of

the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by

University of Missouri-Columbia.