Origins: Early-life solutions to the modern health crisis

Prevention is the ultimate approach to reducing the burden of all kinds of disease, and the greatest potential for success lies in early life. What happens during early critical periods of life can determine our longevity and our risk of disease decades later. In other words: how well we start life will determine how well we finish it. Dr Susan Prescott, a paediatrician internationally recognised for her work in disease prevention through healthier lifestyles, takes us on a journey of health, beginning from the first moments of life, revealing how adverse conditions during the important stages of our development can have a far more profound effect on our body structures, functions and even our developing behaviours. She draws on the latest research to explain how early life conditions determine our biological reserve, our capacity to deal with life’s challenges, and how many of the consequences may not appear until much later in life. Covering a broad range of topics including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, allergy, arthritis and mental health, she shows how improving conditions in early life is critical for long-term health and longevity, and in prevention of adverse conditions.