From conception through infancy and early childhood, exposures to certain stresses can alter the trajectory of development in ways that increase vulnerability to disease in adulthood. Exposure to endocrine disruptor chemicals in the womb, for example, or a disadvantaged mother’s poor diet can modify an infant’s lifelong disease risk. These early life exposures may act in subtle ways. They don’t have to grossly disrupt development or directly trigger disease to make people more vulnerable to heart disease, weight gain and other health problems decades later. One way this happens is through epigenetic processes that change the activity of genes.
