Helen Leka
Medical Student, University of California Irvine
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Helen Leka is a second year medical student at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. She is a member of Leadership Education To Advance Diversity–African, Black And Caribbean (LEAD-ABC), a mission-based program focused on reducing healthcare disparities in ABC and other underserved communities. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychobiology at the University of California Los Angeles. Her interests center around maternal and child health, with a particular focus on health equity and how different environmental factors like nutrition and stress can impact health outcomes.
Addressing the interplay of stress and nutrition on early child development
Nutrition has far-reaching impacts on children’s overall health and development. Conditions, exposures and behaviors in this critical window of development may set the stage for later risk of neurodevelopmental problems and chronic diseases, including obesity and diabetes. This presentation will describe how maternal diet and stress interact from conception to early childhood and play an important role in early child growth and development. Results of a UC Irvine project on the barriers and stressors regarding nutrition in the first 1000 days of life will be shared. Several needs were identified through the survey findings to better support optimal health, growth and development including improved access to nutritious food and educational resources for low-income families, improved cultural appropriateness of nutrition education, messaging around key micronutrients for fetal and early child development, and further professional development opportunities on early life nutrition. Participants will discuss their perceptions of key barriers and ways to improve nutrition equity in an interactive portion of the session.
Helen Leka
Medical Student, University of California Irvine
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