Fetal stress begets adult hypertension

From New Orleans, La., at Experimental Biology 2002

In early pregnancy, several days of intense, unremitting mental stress in a mother–such as might occur with the death of a loved one or loss of a job–may reprogram a baby’s development in ways that foster high blood pressure in adulthood. That conclusion, from Australian studies with sheep, supplies a physiologic basis for the link between fetal stress and adult hypertension that has been suggested by several studies of human populations.