What Is the ORIGINS Project?

The ORIGINS Project is a research project of the KIDS Research Institute Australia that aims to to reduce the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases through a healthy start to life. The Project is a massive undertaking in Australia where 10,000 children and their families over a period of one decade are aiming to improve their health and the health of children by uncovering the causes of chronic conditions such as:

• Diabetes
• Autoimmune diseases
• Cancer

The focus of ORIGINS’ researchers is to discover when and why chronic conditions such as these develop so they can ultimately lead to the discovery of new interventions. In addition to this, researchers will continue their studies to improve child and adult health of not only today’s generation but also for future generations.

The ORIGINS Project is an overall comprehensive study of pregnant women and their families in Australia. However, only families whose babies are born at the Joondalup Health Campus can be eligible to be recruited. It is one of the largest birth cohort studies ever. The project is funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the Commonwealth Government through Telethon 7.

What is most outstanding about this project is the collaborative effort between the Joondalup and the Wanneroon Communities, the researchers doing the long-term core research, and the short-term sub-projects that study the various aspects of child and family health and development. These sub-projects cover many fundamental areas such as:

• Environmental toxicity
• Lifestyle
• Mental health
• Well-being
• Microbiome
• Parenting
• Oral health

Prenatal Health Matters

For years mothers and grandmothers have told their pregnant daughters and granddaughters to be mindful of what they put in their mouth over the course of nine months to ensure a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. They would bring attention to the fact that drugs, alcohol, medications, cigarettes and even acidic foods can affect the fetus negatively. It wasn’t unusual to hear “if you have a headache…get an ice pack.” In other words, the baby’s health takes priority and needs to be given the best environment possible. At that time, the priority was to have a healthy, normal pregnancy and baby.

Today, we are looking to prevent non-communicable, chronic health conditions. Hence, The ORIGINS Project was developed out of a need to reduce the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCD) worldwide by giving every child an opportunity to have a healthy start in life. The ORIGINS Project maintains that these chronic health conditions are what globally pose the greatest threat to human health.

What the ORIGINS Project Offers Families

For families, ORIGINS offers an antenatal clinic with maternity services that include labor and birth with skilled doctors and midwives. Up-to-date birth techniques are available to assist with the entire process of labor, birth, postnatal care, special care nursery and parenting education. Beyond maternity, Joondalup Health Campus, one of the main campuses, has a wide range of services including clinical services, acute pain, cancer care, cardiology, palliative care, orthopedic, pediatric, mental health, stroke, trauma, emergency, disability and many others.

ORIGINS Community Involvement

The ORIGINS Community Reference Group involves members of both the Wanneroo and Joondalup communities who meet regularly with the researchers to provide a community perspective on all the aspects of The ORIGINS Project. The community reference group handles issues such as:

• Consent forms and information sheets
• Surveys and questionnaires
• The focus and direction of the research, now and for the future
• How to involve the community throughout the project

Involving the community, undoubtedly, helps keeps the project focused, real and centered around the needs of the community. The ORIGINS Project also provides a tremendous variety of sub-projects for families of the community to ensure successful health and development of children with the focus of minimizing the possibility of furthering chronic health conditions.

What Can Be Done to Prevent Chronic Health Conditions?

There is no question that the importance of prenatal care is one of the primary reasons attributed to a successful pregnancy. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that pregnant women should be consulted about a healthy diet, physical activity, daily intake of food supplements, and avoidance of substance use and abuse before pregnancy. There is no doubt that self-care behaviors impact pregnancies and will significantly affect both the mother and the child. However, what expectation can there be for mothers to prevent these chronic health conditions such as what the ORIGINS Project is trying to do?

The ORIGINS Project aims to prevent these chronic conditions that they believe start in the womb. Physical health, values, beliefs, relationships, emotional well-being and spirituality all affect the pregnancy and, consequently, the birth and birthing process. Trusting the natural progression is an important focus to help the mother relax and allow the birth to happen as unremarkable as possible. Having the mother also connect with her body and baby throughout the pregnancy helps keep the spiritual and emotional connection with the baby.

Nutrition Is Paramount

First and foremost, pregnancy is a special time for exceptional nourishment to ensure a healthy baby. It’s all about nutrition because nutrition is always one of the most important factors in having healthy babies. The following foods can contribute to having a healthy baby:

• Not containing trans fats
• Leafy greens
• Whole grains
• Wide variety of different vegetables
• Antioxidant-rich berries
• Low-glycemic fruits
• Nuts

Staying hydrated with electrolytes and minerals help the mother and baby keep strong and healthy. Also drinking red raspberry leaf tea throughout the pregnancy helps minimize the pain in the birthing process and provides plenty of vitamin C for mother and child. It is important to avoid processed foods such as fast foods, foods with GMOs or chemicals and preservatives so that both the mother and child will be healthier and long-term outcomes will be more positive.

Alternative Therapies

Alternative therapies during pregnancy can be very effective in helping make the pregnancy and the birthing process go more smoothly. For example, regular chiropractic care is extremely helpful during the pregnancy and not just for daily aches and pains but also for pelvic and back support, to ensure an easier delivery and for the overall pregnancy. Chiropractic care aligns the body and baby to prepare the pelvis and body for delivery. It can shorten the length of delivery, lessen the pain, increase the chances of a natural birth and assist in a faster recovery. Chiropractic care also helps calm and balance the nervous system of both the mother and child. It is a very important therapy to help with pregnancy. Examples of other helpful therapies are:

• Kinesiology
• Light therapy
• Naturopathic medicine
• Osteopathy

Folate vs. Folic Acid

All vitamins and minerals are essential in life but especially so throughout pregnancy. Doctors will always recommend prenatal vitamins, but the question is, are they all the same? (The answer is no, they’re not.)

There is one key factor about multivitamins that is not so well known but extremely important during pregnancy, and that is folate, which is the natural form of vitamin B9. Folic acid, which is the synthetic form of vitamin B9, has always been highly recommended by doctors during pregnancy to prevent serious birth defects such as spina bifida. However, most people do not understand the difference between folate and folic acid.

One primary reason why folate has been determined to be a better alternative to folic acid is because about 40% of the global population has the MTHFR genetic mutations. These SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) are mutations that some people are born with. An MTHFR mutation means that a person is not able to synthesize folate, so they need to get it from their diet.

Unfortunately, natural folate tends to be susceptible to oxidation and can lose its potency rapidly in foods, especially when they are cooked. An alternative could be to choose foods that can be eaten without cooking because the natural enzymes in foods are not lost in the cooking process. Examples of foods that are naturally high in folate are:

• Yeast
• Mushrooms
• Oranges
• Tomatoes

An effective solution if these foods are not eaten in sufficient quantity is to make sure that the multivitamin chosen for pregnancy has folate in it (5MTHF) and not folic acid. An expert in folate is Ben Lynch PhD ND.

Folate has also made its claim to fame in many new areas now, not just helping women get pregnant. It can assist with memory, mental health, migraines, mood, menopause, male hormones and depression in certain individuals. But it continues to be a pivotal nutrient in pregnancy that can affect outcomes of the fetus and the life of the entire family.

Robust Longitudinal Research and Learnings

By implementing the above suggestions, more positive outcomes will likely result, and it may be possible to reduce the number of chronic health conditions that have been on the rise for several years. The ORIGINS Project in Australia is an all-encompassing way of involving the entire community, not only during pregnancy, but also throughout the lives of these children as they grow, teaching the world, providing research and hopefully reaching their goal of reducing the number of chronic health conditions impacting people. The ORIGINS Project is the first of its kind to accomplish what can be done on a large scale by using this multifaceted approach in multiple arenas of a community working together.

About Teresa Badillo

She won a court case in 1995 against the Rockland County School District in New York to enable ARC Prime Time for Kids to be the first school using Applied Behavioral Analysis teaching method for autism that was paid for by the Rockland County School District. The following year she was instrumental in getting the New York Minister of Education to approve an extension of the ARC license from 5 to 21 years.

She has worked over the years in a number of alternative medical practices with doctors and practitioners organizing various biomedical intervention options for children with autism. Since the mid 1990s, Teresa has served on several boards:

• Foundation for Children with Developmental Disabilities
• The Autoimmunity Project
• Developmental Delayed Resources
• Epidemic Answers

She continues to consult and advise parents on all different areas of autism especially nutritional protocols. Since 2006 she has worked with NutraOrgana, LLC and BioCellular Analysis Testing. She currently researches, writes the newsletter and blogs Teresa’s Corner for The Autism Exchange (AEX) as well as for Epidemic Answers.

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