Editor: Bolysbek Dana
Author: Tulkibaeva Nursulu
Translator: Tursunova Balkadisha
Epigenetics is the science that studies the inheritance of genes that have been affected by any external factors. This is a relatively new direction, and was the goal of a study by scientists from Lund University in Sweden. The authors studied the relationship between lifestyle changes during pregnancy and epigenetic changes in the child.
The study involved 425 obese pregnant women. They were divided into three groups. According to the experiment, the first group was asked to take 11,000 steps a day, and follow the Mediterranean diet; the second group - only physical activity; the third group was a control, i.e. did not change their usual lifestyle.
As a control of the result, the umbilical cord blood of newborns was examined. Based on the data obtained after studying the DNA, it was revealed that epigenetic changes occur in those children whose mothers have changed their lifestyle. The head of the study, Professor Charlotte Ling, concluded: "We saw that the children of mothers in both groups who changed their lifestyle had increased muscle mass at birth compared to the control group."
The study demonstrated that physical activity and proper diet during pregnancy can affect the epigenetics of the child.
Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-lifestyle-pregnant-women-affect-babies.html
