A father’s smoking could damage his unborn child’s health - even he quits years before the birth, a new study has revealed.
Norwegian researchers found a baby had a greater risk of asthma if their father smoked before they were conceived.
The findings add to growing evidence which suggests that poor health can be recorded in a father’s sperm or a mother’s eggs.
Australian
research published earlier this year found that drinking, smoking or
eating badly could put a baby's health at risk - years before it is
conceived.
Obesity
or other problems caused by lifestyle can then be passed on to the next
generation - making a baby ‘pre-programmed’ for a life of poor health.
The Australian scientists say they wanted to re-iterate that ‘parenting starts before conception.’
The new
research on smoking, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS)
International Congress in Munich, is the first study in humans to
analyse the link between a father's smoking habits before conception and
a child's asthma.
The study analysed the smoking habits of over 13,000 men and women via a questionnaire.
The
researchers examined the link in both mothers and fathers and looked at
the number of years a person had smoked prior to conception, the
incidence of asthma in children and whether the parent had quit before
the baby was conceived.
The
results showed that ‘non-allergic asthma’ - asthma without hayfever -
was significantly more common in children with a father who smoked prior
to conception.
This
risk of asthma increased if a father smoked before the age of 15, and
the longer the father smoked, the greater the risk of their baby
developing asthma.
No link was found between the mother’s smoking before conception and a child’s asthma.
Dr
Cecile Svanes, from the University of Bergen, Norway, said
policymakers should warn men about how their lifestyle could affect
their future children.
She
said: ‘This study is important as it is the first study looking at how a
father's smoking habit pre-conception can affect the respiratory health
of his children.
'Given
these results, we can presume that exposure to any type of air
pollution, from occupational exposures to chemical exposures, could also
have an effect.’
She
added: ‘It is important for policymakers to focus on interventions
targeting young men and warning them of the dangers of smoking and other
exposures to their unborn children in the future.’
EPIGENETICS: WHY YOUR WILD LIFESTYLE AFFECTS YOUR FUTURE CHILD'S HEALTH
It
is thought that tiny changes are made to an individual’s genes by
smoking, diet and other environmental factors that we come across in
everyday life.
Those ‘epigenetic’ changes can be passed on to the next generation via the egg or sperm.
Scientists
think the ability to pass those epigenetic factors to a baby lies in
the evolutionary need to adapt to changing environment.
It
means, for example, that if a man or woman experience a period of
famine, their genes are altered by the ‘memory’ of that hard time so
their baby is able to cope with less food.
But
if that baby goes on to eat normal amounts, their body cannot cope with
the abundance and they can develop metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
Conversely,
if a parent overeats in life, the baby adapts to expect lots of food.
When they do not get it health problems are the result.
The
biggest impact for both men and women is caused by their behaviour in
the final three months before conception, when sperm and eggs both
undergo final developments.
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