Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, Mali…these countries They are among the people most affected by the current famine. A portion of their population, still in the womb, are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as they grow. This study, published Thursday in the journal Science, also revealed that and It was highlighted by our colleagues in Nature.
The starting point for the work? A large-scale study of more than 10 million Ukrainian children born before, during or after Holomodor, the “hunger genocide” in Ukraine, the great famine that affected the country in 1932 and 1933, provoked by the Soviet Union.
Nearly half a century later, Ukraine has seen a significant increase in the number of people exposed to the famine developing diabetes. The researchers go further to highlight the emergence of “a long-term effect of Holomodor on the incidence of type 2 diabetes, seven decades after prenatal exposure to famine.” We can read in the results of the study. As a reminder, type 2 diabetes, which is the most common, appears especially after the age of forty.
This risk does not appear at any stage of pregnancy. “The increase in type 2 later in life appears to be linked to exposure to famine from early in pregnancy,” one of the researchers explains in his study.
This was the first study to examine the links between famine and diabetes.
“Even if the immediate short-term effects of famines, such as malnutrition or undernutrition, are well documented, the long-term consequences (over several decades) remain difficult to measure,” says Bertie Lumi, a co-author of the study.
Research in Austria and the Netherlands has already shown links between pregnancy and diabetes, but not with such precision or over such a long period. “I have never seen such a rigorous study on this topic,” says Peter Klimek, an Austrian epidemiologist who specializes in data, in Nature columns.
A study that will allow us to better understand the long-term effects of current famines. Since last July, UN experts have said that children in Gaza are suffering from famine due to restrictions on the delivery of food aid. Like UN agencies Like UNICEF, it warned of the risk of famine by the end of May 2024. Affecting nearly one million Gazans. Worldwide, nearly 21 million people will be affected in 2021. According to figures from Action Against Hunger.
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