Drinking alcohol before conceiving a child may speed up the aging process, new research in mice shows

The circumstances within a person’s home, family and community affect their ability to stay healthy. Scientists who study these social determinants of health trying to understand or nature or nurture has a stronger effect on a person’s ability to fight disease.

I am a developmental physiologist studying the ways in which drinking affects the development of the fetus and lifelong health. Although researchers have long recognized that a father’s alcohol abuse negatively impacts the health of his children, mental health and social developmentIt is unclear whether the father’s alcohol use has lasting biological consequences for the physical health of his children.

Recently published research from my lab shows that chronic alcohol use by both parents has a lasting effect on the next generation. causing their offspring to age faster and become more susceptible to disease.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 11% of adults in the US have an alcohol addiction. Heavy drinking causes multiple health problemsincluding liver disease, heart problems, declining cognitive function and accelerated aging.

Parents can pass these health problems on to their children. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders refer to a wide range of alcohol-related physical, developmental and behavioral deficits that affect as many as 1 in 20 American schoolchildren.

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders experience an early onset of adult diseasesincluding type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Cardiovascular diseases appear for the first time during adolescence for people with these disorders, while the rest of the population typically suffers from them in their 40s and 50s. Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are also more likely to be admitted to hospital and have lifespan that is 40% shorter than children without these conditions.

However, it is unclear whether these health problems are the result of living conditions: people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders have a high risk of psychiatric disordersthat cause stress that makes them more susceptible to aging and disease, or if their parents’ substance use has direct, lasting negative effects on their health. In other words, can a parent’s alcohol abuse before conception directly affect the physical health and longevity of their offspring?

Mom and Dad Drinking

In our study, my colleagues and I used a mouse model to measure the effects of maternal, paternal, or coparental alcohol consumption around the time of conception on the aging and chronic disease of their offspring. The mice chose when and how much alcohol they drank.

We found that both fathers’ and mothers’ drinking causes harmful changes in their behavior. mitochondria of the offspringMitochondria, often called the battery of the cell,control many aspects of aging and healthLike a cell phone battery, mitochondria deteriorate over time, causing cells to lose their ability to repair damage and regulate metabolism.

Our experiments in mice show that paternal drinking causes a defect in mitochondrial function that first manifests itself during fetal development And persists into adult lifecausing offspring to age more rapidly. For example, paternal alcohol exposure caused a twofold increase in age-related liver disease, suggesting that parental alcohol use, particularly by the father, may have significant implications for aging and age-related diseases.

Importantly, we found that when both parents drank, the effects on their offspring were worse than when there is only one parent consumed alcohol. For example, we saw a threefold increase in age-related liver scarring when both parents consumed alcohol.

Treatment of fetal alcohol syndrome

People with fetal alcohol syndrome facing lifelong challengesincluding problems with hand-eye coordination and problems with memory and attention.

Early educational interventions For children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, using visual and auditory materials instead of print materials can provide additional structure to facilitate learning.

Although my team and I have studied chronic alcohol exposure, we don’t know whether moderate alcohol consumption also causes mitochondrial problems. We also don’t know whether these effects also occur in people who have not been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders but whose parents drank heavily. Whether paternal drinking affects human embryonic development is still unclear, although emerging studies are beginning to suggest that this is the case.

The next step is to investigate whether interventions targeting mitochondrial health, like exercise And specific dietsmay improve health outcomes in people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

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