How Age and Alcohol intake of Husbands Affect Their Kids

               

The desire of most couple is to see signs of pregnancy few weeks after their solemnization. The 9 months of pregnancy are a wonderful for most parents. Planning for the little one to come, setting the crib, buying all the essentials and the list go on and on.

However, tragedy do struck when the baby comes and something is not quite all right, it can be quite the heartbreaking ordeal for a couple. When a birth defect is in question, new parents go through series of emotions, including insurmountable guilt.

And now research has linked a number of birth defects to the parents, especially the father's age and lifestyle habits.

A Research carried out at Georgetown University Medical Center, US, suggests that it is not just the mother that affects the health of the offspring, but also the father.

“We know the nutritional, hormonal and psychological environment provided by the mother permanently alters organ structure, cellular response and gene expression in her offspring," says Joanna Kitlinska, associate professor at the university.

"But our study shows the same thing to be true with fathers...his lifestyle, and how old he is, can be reflected in molecules that control gene function," she says."In this way, a father can affect not only his immediate offspring but future generations as well.

Joanna and her team reviewed past research works that focused on how a man's lifestyle could cause epigenetic changes in his sperm's DNA that could eventually affect his kid's genome.

The findings showed that if the father is alcoholic, newborn can be diagnosed with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASO), even though the mother has never consumed alcohol.

Alcohol use in fathers was also linked to decreased birth weight, marked reduction in overall brain size and impaired cognitive function.

In addition, the advanced age of a father can elevate the rates of schizophrenia, autism in his children, the researchers said.

Also the diet pattern of a man during his pre-adolescence can reduce or increase the risk of cardiovascular death in his children and grand children.

Paternal obesity has been linked to enlarged fat cells, changes in metabolic regulation, diabetes, obesity and development of brain cancer. Further psychosocial stress on the father can cause defective behavioral traits in his kids.

“The new field of inherited paternal epigenetic needs to be organized into clinically applicable recommendations and lifestyle alternations,” Kitlinska said adding, “ to really understand the epigenetic influence of a child we need to study the interplay between maternal and paternal effects, as opposed to considering each in isolation.

Further research need to be done in this area as the scope of the research could be widening to accommodate more participants.

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