New insights into ending chronic disease.
Nutrition in the Womb Course
April 6-7, 2009 in Seattle, WA
Learn how improving the diets of girls and young women will reduce the burden of chronic disease in the next generation.
The diets of mothers today are determining the health of future generations.
Nutrition in the Womb is a course that will bring together current knowledge in this exciting new field, integrating epidemiology with clinical and basic science. It will discuss biological mechanisms, critical windows and trade-offs. Gender and ethnic specific aspects of development will be described. It will emphasize the importance of the diets of girls and young women, and examine the barriers to good food choices. The long-term effects of infant feeding and child growth will be reviewed. Round table discussions with experts and course participants will begin to explore the strategies by which the epidemic of chronic disease in the can be brought to an end.
The course is designed for public health professionals, dietitians, obstetricians, midwives, nurses, medical and nutrition scientists or anyone who works with the pregnant/pre-pregnant population.
The Nutrition in the Womb Registration Fee includes:
- Breakfast and lunch will be provided on both days.
- Each participant will receive a signed copy of “Nutrition in the Womb” by David Barker MD.
- Powerpoint print-outs and/or detailed outlines will be provided for each presentation.
- Speakers will be available for question and answer sessions.
- Participants will also receive continuing education credits. These have been applied for. Check back with on www.Barker.org.
Presented by The Barker Foundation in collaboration with OHSU Heart Research Center and March of Dimes
COURSE INFO – BACKGROUND
Recent research has shown that chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes, occur in people who are vulnerable to them because they were poorly nourished in the womb. These new ideas arose from epidemiological studies showing that chronic diseases are commoner among people who had low birthweights. A feature of this association with birthweight is that it is graded. 7 pound babies have less disease in later life than 6 pound babies: 9 pound babies have less disease than 8 pound ones. This implies that normal variations in the supply of food from healthy mothers to normal babies have profound effects on life-long health.
Like all living things the human baby at the moment of conception has many possible paths of growth before it. What path it follows, what size it attains at birth, depends on the supply of nutrients from the mother. Undernutrition at “critical periods” of development permanently alters the structure and function of the body’s organs and systems. For most of the body the critical periods occur before birth. If a baby is undernourished it is able to protect one part of the body, such as the brain, by “trading off” the growth other less important parts, such as the kidneys or muscles.
We are beginning to understand why people who were poorly nourished as babies are more vulnerable to chronic disease in adult life. They have fewer functioning units in key organs such as the kidney; they do not respond well to the hormone insulin; and they are vulnerable to the harmful effects of stress.
The basis of a balanced and varied diet has been known in the US for ninety years. Yet many women eat diets that are unbalanced and lack variety. The human embryo is sensitive to the nutrients it receives. A mother’s diet before and at the time of conception is as important as her diet in pregnancy.
A baby does not depend only on what its mother eats each day. That would make it too vulnerable to the mother becoming temporarily short of food or ill. A baby is also nourished from its mother’s body stores, the protein in her muscle, her fat and essential nutrients in her stores. These stores are built up through the life of a mother when she was a girl, teenager and young woman.
COURSE INFO – SCHEDULE: April 6-7, 2009
Monday, April 6th — Morning 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
9:00 am
Welcome To The Conference
Babies
9:15 am
People Who Had Low Birthweight Have More Chronic Disease
David Barker
10:30 am
Break
11:00 am
Why Malnourished Babies Are Different For Life
Kent Thornburg
Monday, April 6th — Afternoon 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Babies
2:00 pm
Why Malnourished Babies Get Hypertension
Susan Bagby
Children
3:00 pm
The Overweight Child: A Clinician’s View
Dan Marks
4:00 pm
From Womb to Weaning
Joan C. Zerzan
Tuesday, April 7th — Morning 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Mothers
9:00 am
Barriers to Good Food Choices in Washington
Julia Martin
10:00 am
Discussion
10:30 am
Break
Obesity
11:00 am
Preventing Obesity in the Northwest
Mel Kohn
12:00 pm
Discussion
Tuesday, April 7th — Afternoon 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Improving The Diet In Washington
2:00 pm
Round Table Discussion with public health experts from around the Northwest
COURSE INFO – SPEAKERS
The speakers from OHSU will include:
David Barker
Physician and Epidemiologist
Dr. David Barker is a physician and researcher. In 1989, with colleagues at the MRC Unit, University of Southampton, he discovered the relationship between birth weight and the lifetime risk for coronary heart disease. He showed that the lower the weight of a baby at birth and during infancy, the higher the risk for coronary heart disease in later life. The risk of heart disease falls across the entire range of birth weight. This implies that normal variations in the transfer of food from mothers to babies have profound long-term implications for the health of the next generation. Later studies showed that low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of hypertension, stroke and type 2 diabetes. This led to the ‘Fetal Origins Hypothesis,’ which proposes that coronary heart disease originates through responses to under nutrition during fetal life and infancy, which permanently change the body’s structure, physiology and metabolism. The hypothesis is strongly supported by studies in animals. David Barker has published more than two hundred papers and written or edited five books about the developmental origins of chronic disease.
Dr. Barker has been recognized internationally for his work: In 1998, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He has received a number of international awards. In 2003, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne presented him with a personal award.
Kent Thornburg
Physiologist and Director of the OHSU Heart Research Center
Kent L. Thornburg, PhD, has been formally trained in developmental physiology, medical science, cardiovascular physiology and molecular biology. He is known internationally as an expert in cardiopulmonary physiology, placentology, and especially, developmental programming of the heart and the roots of adult-onset coronary artery disease. In 1994 he was chosen as the first director of Oregon Health and Science University’s Heart Research Center. In 2001 he became the M. Lowell Edwards Chair in the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. He now serves as Associate Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of Research. By invitation, he holds joint professorial appointments in 5 other departments: Physiology & Pharmacology, Biomedical Engineering, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology.
Dr. Thornburg is a fellow of the American Physiological Society (Cardiovascular). He has received some 25 teaching awards at OHSU and was elected Outstanding Scientist of the Year in 2000 by the Oregon Academy of Science. He has given a number of endowed lectures including the Archibold Byron Macallum Lecture at the University of Toronto. Dr. Thornburg has served on numerous study sections and advisory boards at the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and other international bodies. He is presently the Section Head for the Commission on Development for the International Union of Physiological Sciences and he serves as an honorary member of the Society for the Natal Effects on Health in Adults in India. He has served as editor of the journal, Placenta and has sat on numerous editorial boards. He is presently a consulting editor for Pediatric Research and a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology.
The Thornburg laboratory studies embryonic and fetal heart development in several species including the role of wall shear stress, growth factors and signaling molecules in regulating gene expression patterns in the developing myocardium and coronary tree. Dr. Thornburg is the Principal Investigator of a basic Program Project Grant recently funded through year 15, Maternofetal Signaling and Lifelong Consequences. He also is the PI on clinical studies to determine the role of the pre-conception diet in regulating placental gene expression and fetal growth in rural women of Oregon.
Susan Bagby
Nephrologist
Dr. Susan Bagby is a senior faculty member with major clinical interests in hypertension, fluid and electrolyte disorders, and acid-base disturbances. She served a 5-year term as Medical Director of the Portland VA Dialysis Unit, directed the VA Hypertension Clinic since 1985, and currently heads the OHSU Comprehensive Hypertension Intervention Clinic. Dr. Bagby has recently developed the Division’s regular Nephrology CME program for primary providers in the Oregon/SW Washington region with the major goal of early renal diagnosis and preventive management. Dr. Bagby’s research interests are in two areas linked by the common theme of renin/AngII system roles in growth, development, and disease: 1) NIH-funded studies of normal developmental regulation of AngII receptors (AT1 and AT2) and of vascular growth responses to AngII in a microswine model; 2) Role of the kidney and the Renin/AngII system in the adult hypertension induced by intrauterine growth restriction (NIH/NICHD); and 3) basic science studies of chymase-dependent AngII generation, AngII receptors, and AngII levels in ADPKD cystic kidneys (Am Heart Assoc national grant). Dr. Bagby’s national nephrology activities include program/symposia development for the National Kidney Foundation, the American Society of Nephrology, and Women in Nephrology (WIN: a national organization of women nephrologists and renal scientists). She recently completed a 2-year term as President of WIN and is currently serving as Co-chair of WIN’s Nephrology Interest Group Committee and Fundraising committee. She serves on the national Scientific Advisory Committee of the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation. Dr. Bagby is a member of the American Heart Association Cardiorenal Peer Review Committee. She Co-chairs, with Dr. Ellison, the Professional Advisory Committee of the National Kidney Foundation of Oregon/SW Washington.
Degrees:
B.A. – University of Texas, 1965
M.D. – Baylor College of Medicine, 1970
M.S. – Baylor College of Medicine, 1970 (Anatomy/Cell Biology)
Liz Adams
Maternal and Child Nutritionist
Dan Marks
Pediatrician
Julia Martin
Invited speakers will include
Mel Kohn
Oregon State Epidemiologist
Joan C. Zerzan
Clinical Dietician & Nutritionist
COURSE INFO – LOCATION
The course is being held entirely at Seattle’s Lake Union Residence Inn:
Lake Union Residence Inn
800 Fairview Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98109
