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Dutch Famine (dutch + famine)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

Long term consequences of the 1944,1945 Dutch famine on the insulin-like growth factor axis

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 4 2004
Sjoerd G. Elias
Abstract The insulin-like growth factor axis is highly responsive to nutritional status and may be involved as one of the underlying mechanisms through which caloric restriction could affect cancer risk. High levels of circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, or IGF-I relative to IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-3 have been related to various human cancer types. In a group of 87 postmenopausal women, we found that childhood exposure to the 1944,1945 Dutch famine was associated with increased plasma levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3, whereas IGFBP-1 and -2 levels were weakly decreased. These results are opposite to immediate responses seen under starvation and we hypothesize that this could indicate a permanent overshoot upon improvement of nutritional status after the famine. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Perceived health of adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine

PAEDIATRIC & PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 4 2003
Tessa J. Roseboom
Summary People who were undernourished in early gestation are more obese, have a more atherogenic lipid profile, and altered blood coagulation and seem to have an increased risk of coronary heart disease. We now report on whether they also feel less healthy. We therefore assessed the perceived health of 50-year-old-men and women born alive as singletons around the time of the Dutch famine in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis in Amsterdam. People who had been exposed to famine in early gestation, but not those exposed in mid- or late gestation, more often rated their health as poor (10.3% vs. to 4.9% in the unexposed, odds ratio (OR) 2.2 [1.0, 4.8]). The effect of exposure to famine in early gestation on perceived health could only partly be explained by an increased prevalence of coronary heart disease, respiratory diseases, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia or cancer (adjusted OR 2.2 [0.9, 5.2]). Adjustment for adult risk factors (BMI, LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio, blood pressure, smoking, lung function) also attenuated the results to some extent (adjusted OR 1.9 [0.6, 5.5]). People who were exposed to famine in early gestation were not only less healthy in terms of objective measures of health but they also felt less healthy. Because poor perceived health is a strong predictor of mortality, we may expect increased mortality in people who were exposed to famine in early gestation in the future. [source]

A possible link between prenatal exposure to famine and breast cancer: A preliminary study,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
R.C. Painter
In a study of 475 women born around the 1944,1945 Dutch famine, women exposed to prenatal famine more often reported a history of breast cancer than nonexposed women (hazard ratio, 2.6; 95% confidence interval, 0.9,7.7). They also had alterations in reproductive risk factors. Prenatal famine may increase breast cancer incidence. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:853,856, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]