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Early-Life Exposure to Substance Abuse and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Adulthood

  • Lifestyle Management to Reduce Diabetes/Cardiovascular Risk (E Mayer-Davis and C Shay, Section Editors)
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Abstract

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic non-communicable disease that is driven by insulin resistance as a result of increasing obesity and decreasing activity levels that occur with increasing age. This disease generally develops after the age of 40, but it is now increasingly diagnosed in children and young adults. Increasing evidence, however, suggests that T2D can originate during early development. It has been repeatedly found that malnutrition during the gestational period can result in intrauterine growth restriction and low birth weight, which in combination with postnatal catch-up growth may subsequently lead to the development of T2D. There is ample evidence that T2D may also be programmed by maternal substance abuse (the harmful use of psychoactive substances such as illicit drugs or alcohol) during pregnancy and/or lactation. The research activity in this field is currently mainly focused on the childhood health problems following prenatal exposures to substance abuse. The delayed programming effects on adult-onset disorders, including metabolic syndrome and T2D, however, have been reported only rarely. This review provides animal and human evidence that early-life exposure to substance abuse, including alcohol, nicotine, and cocaine, may program not only childhood health outcomes but also life-long metabolic health status, including risk of T2D and related conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Oksana Zabuga for the technical assistance in preparing this manuscript.

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A.M. Vaiserman declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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  1. Laboratory of Epigenetics, D.F. Chebotarev State Institute of Gerontology NAMS of Ukraine, Vyshgorodskaya st. 67, Kiev, 04114, Ukraine

    A. M. Vaiserman

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Diabetes/Cardiovascular Risk

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Vaiserman, A.M. Early-Life Exposure to Substance Abuse and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Adulthood. Curr Diab Rep 15, 48 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-015-0624-3

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