Researchers at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) found that parents struggling with dog-eating disorders alcohol can pass on the symptoms of premature aging to their children, affecting them well into adulthood. Their findings are published in Aging and Disease.
The consequences of parental alcohol abuse
These effects of accelerated aging, including high cholesterol, heart problems, arthritis, and early dementia, can be passed down individually from both mother and father, but are worsened when both parents have alcohol abuse problems, especially in male offspring.
“Scientists have wondered what makes children who grow up in homes where there is alcohol abuse more likely to get sick,” said Dr. Michael Golding, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology at VMBS. “For example, we know that these children have behavioral problems that make it difficult to cope with stress and could lead to conflicts with school systems or law enforcement.”
But what scientists didn’t know was the cause of the premature aging and predisposition to disease: was it stress or something inherited from these children’s parents?
“We now know that they are inheriting dysfunction in their mitochondria from their parents’ substance abuse,” Golding said. “The dysfunction causes these individuals to show the first signs of age-related diseases when they are still considered young, usually in their 40s.”
Armed with this new knowledge, Golding hopes that doctors can work with patients to improve their mitochondrial health and, possibly, delay the inherited dysfunction that occurs with age, using methods such as exercise and increased intake of certain vitamins.
As adults age, they develop a biological condition called senescence, which occurs when cells slow down and stop dividing, limiting the body’s ability to replace deteriorating cells.
“Senescence is a key marker of aging, especially in the brain, where it leads to cognitive dysfunction and memory problems,” Golding said. “Scientists have long known that heavy alcohol consumption can cause early onset of senescence in adults.”
Using a mouse model, Golding and his team’s research revealed that senescence is also one of the symptoms of premature aging that offspring can inherit from parents who drink alcohol daily up to the legal limit or even more.
“We also see an increase in fat in the liver, which creates scar tissue,” Golding said. “It’s especially common in male offspring. In fact, if both parents have alcohol abuse problems, it can have a compounding effect on male offspring, making them even more prone to liver disease.”
Golding’s lab focuses on the biological relationship between parental alcohol consumption and child development. His lab recently discovered that fathers, not just mothers, may contribute to the development of fetal alcohol syndrome, or FAS, in children. As a result, he also continues to advocate for parents to reduce their alcohol consumption before conception.
“There are all sorts of problems that children can develop soon after birth because of FAS,” Golding said. “But what we haven’t fully understood until now is how parental drinking habits can continue to affect these children into adulthood and affect their ‘health span,’ the number of years a person is healthy without chronic, debilitating diseases.
“Both the birth defects that accompany FAS, such as abnormal facial features, low birth weight and/or height, and attention and hyperactivity issues, and the stress of living with them create unique challenges. As do any environmental issues these children may grow up with, including adoption and the foster care system,” she said.
“But now we understand that there is another component, premature aging, which is inherited directly from one or both parents.”
This latest finding also suggests that parents can pass the benefits of healthy living on to their children. According to Golding, healthy lifestyle choices also compound generationally, making efforts to reverse aging through things like diet and exercise beneficial for future generations.
“Preconception parental health, meaning the overall health of both parents before pregnancy, is critical to the health of your offspring,” she explained. “The more you can do as a prospective parent to adopt a healthy mindset and lifestyle, the more significant the effect you will have on your child’s health both at birth and in their 20s and 40s.”
Paternal alcohol consumption before conception linked to brain and facial defects in offspring
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, women should not drink alcohol during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects in the fetus. Now, research from Texas A&M University shows that a father’s alcohol consumption before conception is also linked to growth defects that affect the development of the brain, skull and face of the offspring.
Research investigating fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) looks exclusively at maternal alcohol exposure. However, because men drink more and are more likely to binge drink than women, Dr. Michael Golding, associate professor in the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology in the School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and his team decided to challenge the existing dogma, using a mouse model to examine what happens when the mother, father, or both parents consume alcohol.
In a new paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Golding and his team found that alcohol consumption by men before conception causes defects in brain and facial growth (FAS).
“We found that male exposures actually drive some craniofacial differences much more than maternal exposures, so this sperm-programming effect has a profound effect on facial organization and the growth and proportion of different facial features,” Golding said. “When it was the father drinking, we saw a profound change in facial organization.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), FAS is a fetal disorder caused by the mother’s alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
FAS is difficult to diagnose, but when they do, doctors currently look for abnormal facial features; lower-than-average weight, height, or both; central nervous system problems such as small head size, attention problems, hyperactivity, or poor coordination; and evidence of maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
“When doctors suspect a baby has FAS, they sit down with the mother to confirm the diagnosis by discussing her drinking habits during pregnancy,” Golding said. “It’s not uncommon for the mother to deny drinking during pregnancy. When she does, there’s this stigma or this idea that women are lying about their drinking.”
Golding said this research reveals a potential blind spot in the current diagnostic criteria for FAS, the most severe form of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which requires documentation of maternal alcohol use during pregnancy.
“Our research shows that there is a plausible alternative explanation, the contribution of the father, that has never been examined before,” he said. “In this study, we challenge the maternal denial and really examine the ability of male alcohol use to induce FAS growth defects.”
Golding explained that the findings of his holistic approach, which examines the contributions of both parents to FAS, highlight the need for two critical changes.
“First, we need to recognize the importance of male health in pregnancy outcomes and fetal health,” she said.
Golding emphasized that paternal health before conception is a new aspect in terms of pregnancy outcomes and fetal health; therefore, raising awareness of the role that paternal health plays in the health of the offspring is as important as raising awareness of the maternal contribution from the moment of conception through gestation.
“Research that looks at fetal health is overwhelmingly focused on maternal health,” she said. “I’m not saying that’s inappropriate; I’m just saying that’s not the whole picture and we need some balance.
“The second,” he said, “is the fact that both parents are responsible for preventing alcohol-related birth defects.”
FAS has significant and life-changing consequences for children.
Because their study found FAS-related craniofacial differences in offspring born to fathers who regularly consumed alcohol at or above the legal limit, Golding stressed that both parents should commit to limiting or avoiding alcohol consumption before trying to get pregnant.
Finally, Golding emphasizes that the first step in this process is to extend communication to both parents about the reproductive dangers of alcohol consumption.
“Change the alcohol warning label to remove the maternal emphasis and have it say to both parents, ‘The decision to consume this beverage may have significant and life-changing consequences for a future child,’” she said. “Right now, the warning label only tells part of the story. We need to get that message out into the world as quickly as possible.”
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