Entangled lives: Implications of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis for bioarchaeology and the life course

American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Rebecca L Gowland

Abstract

Epidemiological research since the 1980s has highlighted the consequences of early life adversity, particularly during gestation and early infancy, for adult health (the "Barker hypothesis"). The fast-evolving field of molecular epigenetics is providing explanatory mechanisms concerning phenotypic plasticity in response to developmental stressors and the accumulation of disease risk throughout life. In addition, there is now evidence for the heritability of poor health across generations via epigenetic modifications. This research has the potential to invoke a paradigmatic shift in how we interpret factors such as growth insults and immune response in past skeletal remains. It demonstrates that health cannot be understood in terms of immediate environmental circumstances alone. Furthermore, it requires both a theoretical and practical re-evaluation of disease biographies and the life course more generally. Individual life courses can no longer be regarded as discrete, bounded, life histories, with clearly defined beginning and end points. If socioeconomic circumstances can have intergenerational effects, including disease susceptibility and growth stunting, then individual biographies should be viewed as nested or "embedded" wi...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 26, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Sabrina C Agarwal
Feb 9, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Samantha L YaussyRebecca C Redfern
Oct 4, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Anna Rohnbogner, Mary Elizabeth Lewis
Oct 30, 2016·American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology·John J McCarthyCatherine Fassbender
Mar 10, 2017·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Rachel Ives, Louise Humphrey
Jan 21, 2017·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Susan Guise Sheridan
Mar 10, 2019·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Sophie L NewmanAnwen C Caffell
Jul 4, 2020·American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council·Sammantha HolderTosha Dupras
May 31, 2020·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Kanya GoddeAmerica Sanchez
Jun 15, 2017·American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council·Sophia C Dent
Nov 29, 2020·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Katherine M KinkopfAlfredo Coppa
Dec 11, 2020·American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council·Sophia C DentJacob S Griffin
Mar 31, 2021·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Weston C McCoolDouglas J Kennett
Apr 15, 2021·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Julie LawrenceDebbie Guatelli-Steinberg
May 14, 2021·International Journal of Paleopathology·Aviva A Cormier, Jane E Buikstra
Aug 20, 2021·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Jared S BeatriceDaniel E Martínez

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