Early wrinkles? Blame mum’s diet

IF you feel old before your time, it is easy to blame a stressful day at work or a late night out. But the answer may lie much further back in time.

Cambridge University research suggests that the seeds of ageing are sown while we are still in the womb, with everything from our mother’s fruit and vegetable intake to whether she smokes affecting us for decades.

Researcher Dino Giussani compared adult rats from normal pregnancies to creatures from ‘difficult’ ones in which oxygen levels were restricted, to mimic the effect of being exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb.

Professor Giussani zeroed in on tiny structures called telomeres – biological caps which protect DNA from damage. As we age, our telomeres get shorter, leading to DNA becoming damaged and raising the odds of agerelated illness. Here, the telomeres were shorter in the adult rats that had lacked oxygen in the womb, meaning they were old before their time. However, if the expectant mother was given anti-oxidants, health-boosting nutrients found in high levels in fruit and vegetables, their telomeres were longer.

The study also suggested smoking or obesity in pregnancy raises the unborn child’s odds of heart disease as an adult. Professor Jeremy Pearson of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, said: ‘Although conducted in rats, this research emphasises the need for pregnant mothers to maintain a healthy lifestyle for the sake of their baby’s future heart health.’