Abstract
There are growing concerns that poor dietary behaviors at young ages will increase the future risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. We found that female college students who skipped breakfast had higher incidences of dysmenorrhea and irregular menstruation, suggesting that meal skipping affects ovarian and uterine functions. Since dysmenorrhea is more prevalent in those with a past history of dieting, we proposed a novel concept that inadequate dietary habits in adolescence become a trigger for the subsequent development of organic gynecologic diseases. Since inadequate feeding that was limited during the non-active phase impaired reproductive functions in post-adolescent female rats, we hypothesize that circadian rhythm disorders due to breakfast skipping disrupts the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis, impairs the reproductive rhythm, and leads to ovarian and uterine dysfunction. To explain how reproductive dysfunction is memorized from adolescence to adulthood, we hypothesize that the peripheral clock system also plays a critical role in the latent progression of reproductive diseases together with the central system, and propose naming this concept “adolescent dietary habit-induced obstetric and gynecologic disease (ADHOGD)”. This theory will contribute to analyzing the etiologies of and developing prophylaxes for female reproductive diseases from novel aspects. In this article, we describe the precise outline of the above hypotheses with the supporting evidence in the literature.
Highlights
Among young women, insufficient energy intake and inadequate timing of dietary intake have become common nutritional issues in the world [1]
We proposed a novel concept that adverse dietary habits in adolescence become a trigger for the subsequent development of organic gynecologic diseases, including endometriosis, which are characterized by dysmenorrhea [4,17]
Since dysmenorrhea becomesmore moremanifested manifestedinin those with a past history of dieting, we proposed a dysmenorrhea becomes those with a past history of dieting, we proposed a novel novel concept whereby inadequate dietary habits in adolescence become a trigger for the subsequent concept whereby inadequate dietary habits in adolescence become a trigger for the subsequent development possible mechanism, mechanism, we we speculate speculate that that confliction confliction development of of organic organic gynecologic gynecologic diseases
Summary
Insufficient energy intake and inadequate timing of dietary intake have become common nutritional issues in the world [1]. It was proposed that gynecologic diseases such as endometriosis, which are frequently manifested by dysmenorrhea, can latently develop with a common modern dietary lifestyle [15] Based on these backgrounds, we found that female college students who skipped breakfast had a significantly higher incidence of dysmenorrhea than those who ate breakfast, according to a questionnaire-based investigation [16]. When we strictly limited the definition of a regular menstrual cycle to a 26–32-day cycle, a significantly higher incidence of irregular menstruation was observed in the group that skipped breakfast [17], suggesting that skipping breakfast disrupts ovarian and uterine functions in young women [9] From these findings, we propose a novel concept that disorders of the central clock system due to breakfast skipping disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, impair the reproductive rhythm, and lead to ovarian and uterine dysfunction. We precisely present the outline of the above hypothesis, showing the supporting evidence in the literature
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