Childhood malnutrition linked to higher blood pressure in adults

Liggins Institute researcher Professor Sir Peter Gluckman is a co-author of a study, published online today in the journal Hypertension, which highlights the persistent effects of nutrition during early life development. The international research collaboration, funded by the Health Research Council of NZ’s International Investment Opportunities Fund, examined adult survivors of severe acute malnutrition, before age five, treated at the Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Jamaica. Lead author Terrence Forrester is chief scientist, UWI Solutions for Developing Countries, at the University of the West Indies, Mona, in Kingston, Jamaica and an Honorary Visiting Professor at the Liggins Institute.

The study showed malnutrition during childhood is associated with higher diastolic blood pressure, higher resistance to blood flow, and poor heart function during adulthood.

In an American Heart Association media release (30 June 2014) researchers suggest that inadequate nutrition before birth and up to age five may harm the heart’s development.

“If nutritional needs are not met during this time, when structures of the body are highly susceptible to potentially irreversible change, it could have long-term consequences on heart anatomy and blood flow later in life,” said Professor Forrester.

“We are concerned that millions of people globally who suffer malnutrition before or after birth are at increased risk of hypertension in later life,” he said.

Researchers compared 116 adults who endured malnutrition growing up in Jamaica to 45 men and women who were adequately fed as children. The participants, most in their 20s and 30s, were measured for height, weight and blood pressure levels, and underwent echocardiograms or imaging tests to evaluate heart function.

Compared with those who weren’t malnourished, adults who survived early childhood malnutrition had
• Higher diastolic blood pressure readings (the bottom number in a blood pressure measurement)
• Higher peripheral resistance (a measurement of the resistance to blood flow in smaller vessels)
• Less efficient pumping of the heart

These factors all point to an increased risk for high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

While severe malnutrition is most pervasive in developing countries, more subtle forms of unbalanced nutrition affect many people in developed nations.

Professor Gluckman commented that greater attention needs to be given to ensuring mothers and children are well nourished from before conception and that this will have long term public health benefits, including reduced risks of chronic heart disease.

Impaired Cardiovascular Structure and Function in Adult Survivors of Severe Acute Malnutrition
Ingrid A. Tennant, Alan T. Barnett, Debbie S. Thompson, Jan Kips, Michael S. Boyne,
Edward E. Chung, Andrene P. Chung, Clive Osmond, Mark A. Hanson, Peter D. Gluckman, Patrick Segers, J. Kennedy Cruickshank, Terrence E. Forrester

Hypertension. 2014;64:00-00. DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.114.03230