Articulating Metabolic Disease in a Lifecourse Perspective

Are obesity and related metabolic disorders the result of a lack of self-discipline? This socially and medically widespread assumption is being challenged by medical research findings on the developmental origins of health and disease. For example, gestation and the first years of life are increasingly seen as formative for later-life disease risk. Experiences like over- or under-nutrition can program the body in ways that increase or decrease one`s chances to develop obesity and metabolic disease in adulthood. In addition, some research findings even suggest that such programming effects not only influence ones own health, but possibly also the health of ones offspring. Disease risk might thus be inheritable across generations. Such findings have the potential to change how we think about and treat obesity and metabolic disease in health policy, medical practice, and everyday life. They highlight, for example, the significance of maternal nutrition for the future health of the unborn child an assertion that can put parents under considerable pressure. The assumption that obesity and metabolic disease have developmental origins in early life can also lead to a closer examination of widespread stereotypes about obese people being lazy or unable to control themselves. In his social science research project Articulating metabolic disease in a life course perspective, Dr. Michael Penkler is going to investigate how scientists study the developmental origins of metabolic health and disease in order to investigate the social and political implications of this biomedical research field. Methodologically, he is going to observe the research practices of leading researchers in this field at the University of Munich and the University of Southampton, conduct interviews with the same researchers, and analyze current scientific publications in this area. He will empirically investigate how different research approaches redefine obesity and its co-morbidities as life course diseases, and how this potentially changes notions of who is individually and collectively responsible for leading a healthy life. His research project thus aims to trace novel medical models of metabolic health and disease while they are still emerging in order to reflexively explore their wider implications and the possible challenges they might pose for society.

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