Exposure to hunger in the womb due to severe food scarcity can significantly raise your risk of high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes later in life.
Prior research has suggested links between prenatal hunger exposure and chronic conditions like diabetes, but definitive confirmation was lacking—until now.
Researchers from Wageningen University, collaborating with Chinese scientists, analyzed nearly 8,000 Chinese individuals exposed to food scarcity from 1951 to 1961. They compared an extreme famine region with one of milder scarcity, distinguishing between in-utero exposure and hunger during childhood.
Key finding: Those exposed to starvation in the womb in the extreme region were more than twice as likely to develop elevated blood sugar and type 2 diabetes.
No such elevated risk appeared for childhood exposure or in the milder scarcity region.
The peer-reviewed study is published in the journal Diabetes.
