A study adds to the body of research showing that the mother’s exposure to toxins affects her child’s health well into the growing years. This study is one of the most comprehensive endeavors delving into early-life environmental origins of metabolic risk, further bolstering prior toxicological and epidemiological evidence in this area
Link to study: Prenatal Exposure to Chemical Mixtures and Metabolic Syndrome Risk in Children, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.12040
the study
The researchers looked at 1134 mother-child pairs from 6 European countries (France, Greece, Lithuania, Norway, Spain, and the UK), and their prenatal exposures to common endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) mixtures. The mean age of the mothers at the birth of their child was 30.7 years, and they were recuited into the study April 1, 2003, and January 30, 2009.
These common toxic chemicals included “metals, organochlorine pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers [that’s PBDEs, or flame retardants], and perfluoroalkyl substances”.
They then measured the children born to the mothers at 6 to 11 years of age. They focused on markers of metabolic syndrome, which combines measurements of blood sugars, lipids such as cholesterol, the existence of fat tissue and the impact on the heart.
We almost always consider health risks from single chemicals, one at a time, as if we are exposed to just one chemical at a time. Here the research team shows that children’s risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes later in life can be driven by the complex mixtures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the body at any moment and it highlights the particular risk of chemical exposures during pregnancy. —Jane Houlihan, the national director of science and health for Healthy Babies Bright Futures
what the researchers found
They found that the exposure to toxins were associated with increased metabolic syndrome risk score and altered proinflammatory proteins, amino acids, and glycerophospholipid levels in childhood.
The childrens’ comprehensive tests had elevated levels of metabolic syndrome at ages 6 to 11. Metabolic syndrome can include obesity, elevated blood pressure, and abnormally high cholesterol and insulin resistance, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
Within the group of children exposed to the highest levels of chemicals, 62% were overweight or obese, compared with 16% of children within the low-risk group.
Moreover, the levels of blood insulin and triglycerides, as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure, were significantly higher in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group.