A mother’s health and her healthy habits will reflect in a child. A child whose mother had a healthy lifestyle is now known to live longer without any heart related issues than a child whose mother had unhealthy lifestyle.
The findings have come up in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The journal is that of the European Society of Cardiology.
Dr. James Muchira (Vanderbilt University, Nashville and the University of Massachusetts, Boston), who is the author of the study, said that mothers are the primary gatekeepers of the health of their children. Muchira said that the influence of mother persists into the adulthood of a child.
The study is considered to be the first one on the relation between the heart health of a parent and their siblings. The study also looked into how each parent influenced their siblings.
The study was based on a data from Framingham Heart Study. The researchers looked into a total of 1,989 mothers, fathers and offspring each. The study looked into the adulthood of the children to get a clear picture on how the mother’s healthy life style influenced them.
The researchers took into account various factors such as smoking, physically active, healthy diet, normal body mass index, blood cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose.
In the study, they analysed how long the children, whose parents had cardio issues, lived without any heart ailments. They analysed the link between father and the child and also between mother and child.
It was seen that the children of mothers with a good cardiovascular health lived nine more years free of any heart ailments than the children of mothers with poor cardiovascular health. The researchers also concluded that the heart health of father did not have much influence on the kids,
Muchira claimed that the relation between the mother and child may be because of the bond during pregnancy and environment in early life. He also said that the child’s health is influenced if mothers have hypertension or diabetes during pregnancy. These factors could get imprinted in child’s health, he added.
The researchers also said that sons were more affected than daughters. They said that this was because boys had more unfavourable lifestyle habits than the girls, which only worsened the situation.
Muchira said that pregnant mothers should get proper interventions during pregnancy. Moreover, children should also get this in early stages so that they grow up healthy.
