The fetal origins of adult disease

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that babies who are small for dates at birth, or who fail to grow in infancy, have, in adult life, raised blood pressure, impaired glucose tolerance, abnormal serum lipids, raised fibrinogen and high death rates from coronary disease, stroke and obstructive lung disease. This has led to the hypothesis that these diseases are ‘programmed’ in utero in response to an adverse environment.