The importance of “the first 1.000 days of life” in future health

Luis Alberto Moreno Aznar, researcher at the University of Zaragoza and the IIS Aragón, recalls that in the first months of life breastfeeding should be encouraged and protein intake and the consumption of added sugars should be limited.

Some risk factors, from conception to the end of the second year of life, can condition the subsequent appearance of diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases.

Next Tuesday, December 19 at 20:15 p.m., he will give a conference at the Academy of Pharmacy of the Kingdom of Aragon, with the main conclusions of various studies that have been carried out in recent years.

“In the first months of life, breastfeeding should be encouraged, protein intake and the consumption of added sugars should be limited. Improving lifestyles during the first 1.000 days of life is an opportunity for primary prevention of chronic diseases related to the nutrition of future generations.” 

These are the main conclusions of the conference «The first 1.000 days of life, an opportunity to improve future health», that next Tuesday 19th at 20.15:XNUMX p.m. will impart Luis Alberto Moreno Aznar, professor of Research Methodology at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Zaragoza and principal investigator of the research group GENUD (Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development). 

This conference will close the 2023 academic year of the Academy of Pharmacy of the Kingdom of Aragon, in an event that will take place in the assembly hall of the Official College of Pharmacists of Zaragoza and can also be followed via streaming (www.cofzaragoza.org). The presentation will be the responsibility of María Luisa Bernal Ruiz, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zaragoza and full academician of the Kingdom of Aragon Academy of Pharmacy. 

The first months of life are critical in development from childhood to adulthood and are considered to occur between the moment of conception and the end of the second year of life. During this period the metabolism is programmed, in such a way that Some risk factors can condition the subsequent appearance of some diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases.  

"Among these risk factors are maternal obesity, weight gain during pregnancy, the child's birth weight, insufficient maternal nutrition and rapid growth in the first months of post-natal life." This is how he explains it professor and researcher at the University of Zaragoza, Luis Alberto Moreno Aznar, attached to the Agri-Food Institute of Aragón (IA2, UNIZAR-CITA joint center), as well as the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) and the Biomedical Research Network Center for Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) of the Institute of Health Carlos III. 

Chronic diseases related to nutrition such as obesity, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia or type 2 diabetes are the main risk factors for mortality from cardiovascular diseases or cancer. These diseases develop on a substrate of genetic susceptibility, to which risk factors related to lifestyles are associated, such as diet, insufficient physical activity, sedentary behaviors and insufficient quantity or quality of sleep. . 

In recent decades, numerous scientific studies have been published that have revealed the importance of exposure to these risk factors, from the moment of conception and during pregnancy and the first two years of life. This period represents the first 1.000 days of human life. 

In a review on this topic, it was concluded that the main risk factors for the development of obesity are the presence of obesity in the mother, prior to pregnancy, low birth weight and rapid weight gain in the early postnatal period. Other risk factors involved would be father's obesity, weight gain during pregnancy, maternal smoking, the high consumption of added sugars during pregnancy, maternal malnutrition, high birth weight, lack of breastfeeding, the high consumption of added sugars and proteins in the post-natal period and the insufficient sleep time in that same period. 

Source: Zaragoza's University