Adolescent Dietary Habit-induced Obstetric and Gynecologic Disease (ADHOGD) as a New Hypothesis-Possible Involvement of Clock System

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.

Keywords: ADHOGD; adolescent; breakfast skipping; clock gene; dieting; dysmenorrhea; obstetric and gynecological diseases; young adulthood.

Figure 1

Concept of adolescent dietary habit-induced obstetric and gynecologic disease (ADHOGD). Adverse dietary habits, such as dieting and breakfast skipping during adolescence and adulthood, impair development and maturation of the reproductive function (1), which induces the latent progression of obstetric and gynecologic disorders (2). Although apparent recovery is achieved after correcting adverse eating habits (3), the reproductive function is precociously declined (4), which later leads to the onset of obstetrics and gynecologic diseases (5).

Figure 2

The involvement of central and peripheral clock systems in ADHOGD. Adverse dietary habits continue to desynchronize central and peripheral clocks during the critical period, from adolescence to young adulthood (1). This functional disturbance in the clock systems is memorized in the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis and the uterus from the developing to mature stages (2). This will lead to the onset of obstetric and gynecologic diseases in adulthood (3).