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American Morning

'Paging Dr. Gupta'

Aired January 29, 2004 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Can a mother's diet during pregnancy play a role in how long her child will live? A new Cambridge University study suggests that the answer is, yes.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details this morning.

Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, an interesting study, although maybe a little common sense as well. The way a mom eats affects the way a baby is born in terms of their weight, and maybe also their lifespan, at least that's according to a study in mice. Mice -- the study done out of Cambridge University. The study actually looked at the eating habits of a mom when a baby was in the womb, and tried to figure out what that did not only to the birth weight, but also to the lifespan.

This is what the study found after following these mice along there: Poor eating habits by the mom reduced the baby's lifespan. Being well fed in the womb actually led to a longer lifespan.

Minor manipulations in the mother's diet during pregnancy could increase or decrease the life of the mouse by about 50 percent afterward as well.

Now obviously, this is all in mice, so kind of hard to apply this to human beings, but this may bolster the evidence, in fact, that low birth weight babies may develop significant problems later in life that could reduce their lifespan. Whether or not you could make that translation directly, a little bit unclear. But sort of interesting anyway -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, it's not only, of course, a study about the mother's eating and the baby's effects in utero, but also what happens after the baby is born. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

GUPTA: Yes, that's also very interesting. So let's say during the womb, the mother did not eat that well when the baby was in the womb. Let's say after the baby was born, they also were fed a very unhealthy diet, relatively unhealthy diet. That would shorten their lifespan even more in these particular mice. So you know, unhealthy in the womb, unhealthy immediately after birth, even more of a reduction. Now let's say the mom tried to catch up on the baby's birth weight by giving a high-fat diet, trying to give a higher fat diet. That actually didn't work very well. About 517 days was the lifespan. Again, these are in mice, so it's kind of hard to translate that lifespan, but a relatively shortened lifespan if you tried to catch up with the fatty food diet. If you just gave the baby a normal diet after weaning, despite the fact that they were of low birth weight, that seemed to give you your best benefit overall in terms of life span.

And again hard to translate that to human beings, but perhaps if a baby is born with low birth weight, the best answer may be to give them just a normal, standard diet to try and make their gains -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, are they creating a link between obesity and early death.

GUPTA: Warding off obesity is sort of one of the most interesting things about this study. Could you perhaps ward off obesity, or figure out which mice are going to become obese based on their diet within the womb, and again, just after they are born. And the answer is, at least according to the study, yes, perhaps you could do that. It turns out that babies who are fed well a standard diet while they are in the womb, and again, after they were born, were less likely to develop obesity, even if they were given a high-fat diet late on. On the other hand, mice who are given a high fat diet immediately after birth, were most likely to become obese, even if they went to a standard diet later on.

A lot to throw at you, but if you want to talk about humans, we actually did some homework on how that applies to humans as well. In turns out that babies who are fed are high-fat diet, human babies that are fed a high-fat diet in the first four months of life, are the most likely to develop significant obesity at one year of age, again at seven years of age, and then as adults. Those first four months of life, perhaps some of the most significant overall in terms of that obesity link -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: That's good information there. Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 29, 2004 - 08:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Can a mother's diet during pregnancy play a role in how long her child will live? A new Cambridge University study suggests that the answer is, yes.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with details this morning.

Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, an interesting study, although maybe a little common sense as well. The way a mom eats affects the way a baby is born in terms of their weight, and maybe also their lifespan, at least that's according to a study in mice. Mice -- the study done out of Cambridge University. The study actually looked at the eating habits of a mom when a baby was in the womb, and tried to figure out what that did not only to the birth weight, but also to the lifespan.

This is what the study found after following these mice along there: Poor eating habits by the mom reduced the baby's lifespan. Being well fed in the womb actually led to a longer lifespan.

Minor manipulations in the mother's diet during pregnancy could increase or decrease the life of the mouse by about 50 percent afterward as well.

Now obviously, this is all in mice, so kind of hard to apply this to human beings, but this may bolster the evidence, in fact, that low birth weight babies may develop significant problems later in life that could reduce their lifespan. Whether or not you could make that translation directly, a little bit unclear. But sort of interesting anyway -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, it's not only, of course, a study about the mother's eating and the baby's effects in utero, but also what happens after the baby is born. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

GUPTA: Yes, that's also very interesting. So let's say during the womb, the mother did not eat that well when the baby was in the womb. Let's say after the baby was born, they also were fed a very unhealthy diet, relatively unhealthy diet. That would shorten their lifespan even more in these particular mice. So you know, unhealthy in the womb, unhealthy immediately after birth, even more of a reduction. Now let's say the mom tried to catch up on the baby's birth weight by giving a high-fat diet, trying to give a higher fat diet. That actually didn't work very well. About 517 days was the lifespan. Again, these are in mice, so it's kind of hard to translate that lifespan, but a relatively shortened lifespan if you tried to catch up with the fatty food diet. If you just gave the baby a normal diet after weaning, despite the fact that they were of low birth weight, that seemed to give you your best benefit overall in terms of life span.

And again hard to translate that to human beings, but perhaps if a baby is born with low birth weight, the best answer may be to give them just a normal, standard diet to try and make their gains -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, are they creating a link between obesity and early death.

GUPTA: Warding off obesity is sort of one of the most interesting things about this study. Could you perhaps ward off obesity, or figure out which mice are going to become obese based on their diet within the womb, and again, just after they are born. And the answer is, at least according to the study, yes, perhaps you could do that. It turns out that babies who are fed well a standard diet while they are in the womb, and again, after they were born, were less likely to develop obesity, even if they were given a high-fat diet late on. On the other hand, mice who are given a high fat diet immediately after birth, were most likely to become obese, even if they went to a standard diet later on.

A lot to throw at you, but if you want to talk about humans, we actually did some homework on how that applies to humans as well. In turns out that babies who are fed are high-fat diet, human babies that are fed a high-fat diet in the first four months of life, are the most likely to develop significant obesity at one year of age, again at seven years of age, and then as adults. Those first four months of life, perhaps some of the most significant overall in terms of that obesity link -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: That's good information there. Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com