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News David Barker Presents at Annual Esther and Isadore Kesten Memorial Lectureship By Athan Bezaitis On Thursday, November 2, 2006, the USC Andrus Gerontology Center welcomed world renowned physician and researcher David Barker to discuss the developmental origins of aging. The presentation was part of the 2006 Esther and Isadore Kesten Memorial Lectureship, an annual event in which a speaker hand-picked by gerontology faculty presents on a relevant issue in aging. About 125 people, gerontology professionals, retirees, students, staff and university faculty, attended to listen to Dr. Barker, who is considered a pioneer in the fields of diet, nutrition and chronic disease. “David Barker has led a major shift in thinking about vascular disease, diabetes and obesity by showing that prenatal environment influences later risk of these diseases,” said Caleb Finch professor of gerontology at USC. “Professor Barker is one of the world’s most distinguished biomedical scientists and a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom equivalent of the US National Academy of Sciences.” In 1989, at the University of Southampton, Dr. Barker discovered a correlation between birth weight and the lifetime risk for coronary heart disease. He showed that the lower the weight of a baby at birth and during infancy, the higher the risk for coronary heart disease later in life. On Thursday, Dr. Barker’s presentation emphasized that normal variations in the transfer of food from mothers to babies has profound long-term implications for the health of the next generation. Jennifer Glover, a Ph.D. student in occupational science studying lifestyle redesign was interested in how nutrition of pregnant women affected their children. “Dr. Barker’s lecture made me wonder whether we should have more emphasis on lifestyle redesign earlier in life,” Ms. Glover said. The trip marked Dr. Barker’s first visit to USC, although he has worked with Dr. Finch since the two met at an aging conference in Switzerland. “This school [Leonard Davis] has a top-notch multidisciplinary faculty,” said Dr. Barker. “Aging research has gotten stuck and this is the place that could really spring it.” Dr. Barker's work is relevant to both Western countries and to the Third World. In the Western world, many babies remain poorly nourished because their mother’s diets are unbalanced in macronutrients and deficient in micronutrients, or because their mothers are excessively thin or overweight. In the Third World, many girls and young women are chronically malnourished. In his new book, Foundation for a Lifetime, he lays out for parents and parents-to-be, how mother's diets, children's growth and adult lifestyles can protect against disease in later life. |
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