Mother's lifestyle largely reflects on the offspring's cardiovascular health says a study. The findings was published in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
The study suggests that offspring of mothers who lead a healthy lifestyle during their reproductive age are more likely to live a decade longer than those of mothers with an unhealthy lifestyle.
The report puts in limelight the significance of hereditary transmission of health from parents to their offspring.
"Our study suggests that mothers are the primary gatekeepers of their children's health" said study author Dr. James Muchira.
The study was conducted on three groups of offspring, mothers and fathers each containing 1989 members. The offspring's adult lifestyle was followed up since it is usually the time period in which cardiovascular diseases (CVD) show up. The relationship between parental cardiovascular health and how long their offspring managed to live without CVDs were assessed by the researchers.
Seven factors like not smoking, healthy diet, physically active, normal body mass index, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood glucose in parents were analysed to rate their cardiovascular health.
Offspring of mothers with poor health resulting from unhealthy lifestyle were under twice the danger of being affected by CVDs at an early age than the offspring of mothers with an ideal cardiovascular health.
However the study showed that the father's health did not seem to have any significant effect on child's health status.
"If mothers have diabetes or hypertension during pregnancy, those risk factors get imprinted in their children at a very early age" Dr Muchira added.
The researchers stressed that promoting the cardiovascular health of women of reproducible age and women with young kids plays a major role in preventing cardiovascular diseases and thereby paving way for a healthier generation.