Fetal Programming

Scientists and doctors used to look at a lot of diseases like diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, breast cancer and other as a result of unhealthy practices or the patients gene vulnerability, but this concept has started to change over the past years only, scientists and doctors are starting to build on new research results concluding that most diseases are a reflection to what is called ‘Fetal Programming’ inside the mother’s womb.

This new scientific fact points out that, ever day the fetus spends in the womb can form an ability to be infected with diseases that might not show up until after 40 years of age.

The weekly magazine (Newsweek) published in its 27^th edition for September 1999 a report about this subject and a summery about the main researches that has been done in that field.

One of those diseases currently considered by scientists that it might be a fetal programming issue is: high-blood pressure diseases, the development of neurological pressure, and the susceptibility of having obesity related diseases, diabetes, cancerous diseases, allergies, heart diseases, and high cholesterol levels in the blood and many more.

But the ability of the newborn children to be affected by obesity diseases at puberty or middle age stages is believed to be due to malnutrition of the pregnant mother during the first months of pregnancy, which can disturb the systematic control over the fetus’s apatite that will not show consequences until years after middle age stages.

But the fetus’s ability to be infected by diabetes is believed to be the result of subjecting the fetus to high sugar levels inside the womb which tires down the pancreas of the fetus, making it more vulnerable to be infected with diabetes in advanced ages, but the ability to be infected with breast cancer is believed to be the result of subjecting the fetus in the womb to high levels of estrogen ( the female hormone), which creates tissue and female cells to respond to estrogen in advanced stages of age in a way that helps breast cancer to happen before the age of 50.

But the ability to be affected by heart and vessel diseases and high blood pressure, it was found that children born with less weigh than normal levels are more subject to be affected by heart diseases at middle age than other, and researchers believe that depriving the fetus from a healthy nutrition system is behind all that, and thus forcing the fetus’s body in this case to direct the blood and nutrition to the brain, which is the most important organ in the body on the expense of other organs, which would result in uncompleted growth in many organs in a healthy and balanced way, and thus many organs cannot fulfill its functions to its full extent.

For example, kidney’s become smaller in size and less efficient in controlling cholesterol levels in the blood and what follows that from diseases in blood vessels and the heart.

But ii was found that malnutrition by pregnant women prevents the Placenta to get rid of harmful hormones that may affect the fetus if it went above normal ratings, and like the cortisone hormone, increasing its access to the fetus’s brain will result losing control over neural pressures at middle ages.

The discovery of this new science puts a huge responsibility on pregnant women much more important and have to be addressed by the regular checkups by a doctor and committing to his advices and guidelines, and follow a balanced and healthy diet, avoiding medicine, smoking, drugs and alcohol of course, before and after the pregnancy, followed by an exercise system that suits pregnant women to avoid circumstances that results into neural pressures.

We are in need to level up health awareness in our communities and provide educational programs that are complete and whole for pregnant women, from courses to bulletins and multimedia, for without proper health awareness, mothers could hurt their unborn children without knowing, forcing individuals and communities to pay burdens due to the diseases that could have been avoided by taking protective measures.