Prof C S Yajnik, MD FRCP, Consultant Diabetologist and Director, Diabetes Unit, KEM Hospital Pune
He is also Assoc. Prof. at BJ Medical College, Pune, Visiting Fellow at the MRC Developmental Origins Unit at Southampton, UK and a Visiting Professor at Peninsula Medical School, Dept of Molec. Medicine and Genetics at Exeter, UK.
It is well-known that diabetes epidemic has rapidly affected India in the last 50 years. Indians get diabetes at a younger age and at lower BMI (Body mass index kg/m2) compared to the White Caucasians. Part of the explanation could be genetic but genetics contribute relatively little to the growing epidemic. An additional novel explanation is related to intrauterine programming of adult disease by different components of maternal environment. Both fetal undernutrition and overnutrition increase the risk of future diabetes, probably by epigenetic mechanisms. This concept has been popularized from Diabetes Unit KEM Hospital Research Center, Pune (Dual teratogenesis)
