Programming research: where are we, and where do we go from here? (Part 3)

Convincing evidence has accumulated to show that both pre- and post-natal nutrition pre-programme long-term health, well-being and performance until adulthood and old age. This is supported by three separate lines of evidence, including lifetime experimental studies in animals, historical and prospective observational studies in humans, and experimental, hypothesis-testing trials in humans with long-term follow-up. There is enormous potential in applying this knowledge for preventive approaches with regard to improving the health and well-being of the population, to reducing costs for health care and social services, and for enhancing productivity and wealth of societies. To achieve such benefits, solid science based knowledge is required to assess the effect sizes of early life programming in contemporary European populations with regard to specific outcomes related to long term health and burden of adult disease, to characterize underlying mechanisms, to establish sensitive time periods during which these exposures act, and to understand potential effect differences in different subgroups of the populations characterized e.g. by genetic predis- position or gender. The results of this research should lead to conclusions on best nutritional practice in pregnancy, lactation and infancy. In this presentation, we shall review the state of the knowledge, identify some key issues that need to be resolved, and describe opportunities for future research.