Diet and exercise in obese mothers can protect their babies from cardiovascular disease

A new study has found that lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise during pregnancy can prevent a baby's risk of
cardiovascular disease.

The recent study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, by researchers at King's College London, funded by the British Heart Foundation, found that 3-year-olds were more likely to show risk factors
for heart disease in the future if their mothers were clinically obese during pregnancy.
Behavioral lifestyle interventions reduced this risk
.

In the UK, more than half of women receiving antenatal care are clinically overweight or obese
.
There is growing evidence that obesity during pregnancy is associated with cardiometabolic dysfunction in children, and that severe cardiovascular disease may begin in the womb
.

An optimistic trial conducted at the NHS Foundation Trust in Guy and St Thomas, women who were obese (BMI over 30kg/m2) in early pregnancy were randomly selected for diet and exercise interventions or standard pregnancy care
.
Interventions included one-on-one counselling, dietary restriction of saturated fat, consumption of foods with a low glycemic index such as vegetables and legumes, moderate and monitored physical activity, and tools
to record exercise.
The intervention group experienced improvements
in gestational weight gain, physical activity, healthier diet, and healthier metabolic status throughout pregnancy.

Follow-up of three-year-olds showed evidence of cardiac remodeling in children of clinically obese women, a risk factor
for future cardiovascular disease.
These changes include increased myocardial thickness, increased resting heart rate, evidence of early impaired cardiac relaxation, and increased sympathetic activity (the "fight or flight" response)
compared with normal-weight women.
The children of the women assigned to the intervention group were not affected
by early changes in the structure and function of the heart.

Dr Paul Taylor, of King's College London, who led the study, said: "Maternal obesity appears to adversely affect the development of the fetal nervous system and the development of the fetal heart, and this effect is evident
before the age of 3.
" Complex lifestyle interventions during pregnancy are associated
with the prevention of cardiac remodeling in infants.
We can assume that over time, these changes in the heart and its functions will get worse, increasing the child's risk of cardiovascular disease in the future
.
”

Studies have shown that maternal obesity may have a lasting impact
on a child's cardiovascular health.
Promoting dietary changes and physical activity during pregnancy may reduce this risk
.