An IAEA meeting dedicated to the use of nuclear techniques in the study of human nutrition during pregnancy and early life begins today at the IAEA´s headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The meeting will look at ways to identify and tackle infant malnutrition, an affliction that can have serious health consequences later in life.
"Nutrition problems experienced during foetal and early life can predispose individuals for later development of chronic diseases," says Lena Davidsson, Head of the IAEA´s Nutritional and Health-related Environmental Studies Section and Conference Chair.
"The body composition of babies at birth and during the first two years of life is a crucial indicator of their nutritional status and well-being. This parameter, which indicates the fat mass and lean body mass of an individual, can be measured through nuclear techniques."
A dose of labelled water, so-called because the hydrogen component is labelled with a stable (i.e., non-radioactive) isotope, is given to the baby and allowed to be absorbed gradually in the body for a few hours. The extent of the dilution of the isotope tracer in body water is then measured by sampling saliva, urine or plasma. Total body water is then calculated and lean body mass quantified. Fat mass is the difference between body weight and the lean mass.
Measuring children´s body composition throughout infancy is an important tool to maintain the quality of growth during the first two years of life. "This represents a ´window of opportunity´ during which it is possible to intervene with appropriate measures and counteract the likely development later in life of health conditions such as coronary heart disease, hypertension and diabetes," Davidsson says.
Participants in the IAEA meeting will aim to establish priority areas in research and technical development as well as address the issue of infant malnutrition through development projects. Some 20 nutrition experts from all over the world are taking part in the Nuclear Techniques in Human Nutrition; Body Composition from Conception through Infancy meeting, which is held from 15-17 September.
Background
According to the Barker hypothesis, foetuses exposed to poor nutritional conditions can develop into so-called "thrifty phenotypes," i.e., individuals with a structure, physiology and metabolism prepared for survival in an environment in which resources are likely to be scarce (a phenotype is any observable characteristic of an organism resulting from the interaction between its genes and the environment).
Under such conditions essential organs, such as the brain, are developed at the expense of other organs, such as kidneys and the pancreas. Later in life this could have consequences for the person´s health and ultimately result in the development of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and diabetes.
According to recent scientific studies, the high incidence of such diseases in developing countries like India can be linked to the thrifty phenotype phenomenon.