Alterations of growth potential are associated with an increased risk for several chronic diseases in the adult such as: cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and depression. This association becomes stronger when it is controlled for current body weight (1). This data implies that a fetal adaptive response to unfavorable circumstances can have enormous repercussions on public health, which is particularly relevant in developing countries that have an improved economy associated with enhanced resources to provide adequate nutrition. New information has shown that high growth velocity within the first 2 weeks of life, and not birth weight, was strongly associated with insulin resistance in adolescents born prematurely (2). Recently, Norman and Martin reported endothelial dysfunction, expressed as defects in vasodilatation, measured at three months after birth in full term small for gestational age (SGA) but not in prematurely SGA infants (3). This information suggests that the alteration of growth patterns not only expressed as birth weight but also as a transitory change in the velocity of growth in the first months of life can induce changes that will increase the risk for adult cardiovascular or metabolic disease.

Adair and Cole used data from a longitudinal cohort study of youth from the Philippines to examine the relationship between high blood pressure (BP) in adolescence and size at birth as well as patterns of growth from birth to adolescence. This cohort is extremely interesting since it gathered information on children who were growth restricted during pregnancy or in early childhood, but due to improvement in economic development in the Philippines their nutrition improved and growth velocity increased resulting in higher weight (4).

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