The great Chinese famine of 1959-1961 seriously affected the health of future generations.

This conclusion was made by researchers from Brown University (USA) and Harbin Medical University (China), who studied the relationship between hunger and carbohydrate metabolism disorders in offspring..

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports hunger increases the risk of hyperglycemia and type II diabetes in future generations.

Researchers claim that even children conceived many years after a terrible famine are more susceptible to carbohydrate metabolism disorders than others..

Surprising results based on health analysis of 3,000 Chinese.

Some of them survived the famine of 1959-1961, others were conceived or fed during this period, and still others were born many years after the disaster..

“These were unique“ experiments ”of the authorities over the population under the influence of revolutionary, social and political upheavals. By studying the effects of hunger, we have demonstrated the close interaction between nutrition and human genetics, ”says Dr. Simin Li, professor of epidemiology..

The results were shocking even for the authors themselves..

Of 983 children fed during hunger, 31.2% suffered from hyperglycemia and 11.2% from type II diabetes.. Among 1085 children born after hunger, hyperglycemia was observed in 16.9%, another 5.6% suffered from diabetes.

Those conceived during hunger were 93% more likely to suffer from hyperglycemia and 75% more often from type II diabetes.. For the second generation, these numbers fluctuated between 10-11% if one or two parents were affected by hunger.

“Genetic, epigenetic reprogramming as a result of genes-diet interaction are the most likely explanations for this phenomenon.. In the future, we plan to conduct a more detailed study of the genome of this cohort in order to determine the exact cause of metabolic disorders in these people, "

medbe. ru.