The Academy of Scholars Annual Senior Lecture Series will be today in Blue Lecture at 3 p.m. David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., physician and professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Southampton, will speak on "Chronic Disease Begins in the Womb."Fifteen years ago, Dr. Barker, who is also a professor in the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, showed for the first time that people who had low birth weight are at greater risk of developing coronary heart disease. He subsequently showed that they are also at greater risk of stroke, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. This led to the idea that these disorders originate through malnutrition in the womb and during infancy. In 1992, the British Medical Journal named this the "Barker Hypothesis." It is now widely accepted. Dr. Barker recently joined the faculty at the Heart Research Center, OHSU, to study how nutrition and growth before birth and during early childhood alter the development of the heart.The seminar is co-sponsored by the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.
Read more about Dr. Barker and his research...