Not only mothers should take care of themselves: this is how men's (poor) health affects their future offspring

It is well known that the age and health of the mother influence her fertility and the health of the offspring. Due to the relevance of the first factor, the concept of the biological clock is often referred to, which puts some pressure on some women. Thus, pushed to make a decision regarding motherhood based on how old they are, they stop taking into account their own aspirations and the psychosocial, economic and work factors that can influence it.

But as we will see below, the father's age, habits and experiences can also affect the health of his children.

Beyond fertility
First of all, we must talk about male fertility, which suffers after turning 40 and due to the presence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. But it has also been found that the father's advanced age increases the incidence of mental illnesses in his children.

In the specific case of the appearance of psychiatric disorders, the study of the underlying mechanisms becomes extremely complex: to the possible biological factor of age we must add the effect of the generational clash in the parenting style and the risk that a child of a father old man loses his parent when he is still very young.

On the other hand, epidemiological studies focused on times of famine or war have shown that the incidence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and susceptibility to stress increase in the descendants of those affected.

poisoned inheritance
It cannot be ignored that these events may have consequences beyond the purely biological, but it should not be ruled out that traumatic experiences, unhealthy habits, the father's advanced age and his illnesses leave an inheritable mark on his children. This would be in line with the ideas postulated by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, now vindicated.

To study whether the impact of the father's age and health can be inherited through some type of biological mechanism, animal experimentation has been used. These investigations have confirmed the effect of diet and physical activity on offspring. In addition, unhealthy habits such as drug consumption also have a negative effect in this regard.

Thus, several studies have shown that alcohol influences the weight of offspring and whether they develop symptoms associated with anxiety; Furthermore, the father's exposure to nicotine or cannabis could cause alterations in genes related to autism.

Likewise, offspring of male mice subjected to stress could also develop metabolic alterations and greater susceptibility to stress.

This is how epigenetic changes occur
And how can the father transmit the effect of these factors? According to this research, the harmful consequences are transferred through sperm. Specifically, the information would travel in the form of microRNA, a smaller type of RNA. This is capable of inducing epigenetic mechanisms.

Briefly, epigenetic mechanisms affect the expression of our genes but do not change our genetic code. That is, without modifying the DNA, our father (and even our grandfather) could transmit essential information to us that would affect our health and that of our future descendants.

Studies have linked factors such as diet, stress, and exposure to toxic compounds to alterations in microRNA levels in sperm. Good examples of this are alcohol and nicotine: both modify the amounts of up to seven different types of microRNA.

Future studies will probably help us better understand the specific role of these molecules and the mechanisms they set in motion.

Care of future fathers and mothers
In short, there is no doubt that the age and health of mothers and fathers influences all areas of motherhood and fatherhood. The latest research tells us about epigenetic mechanisms by which the impact of age, habits, diseases and traumatic experiences could be transmitted and inherited.

For women who want to become pregnant, good planning contributes to a healthy pregnancy and the good health of the baby. This planning should include care that begins before pregnancy: following a healthy diet, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, and taking folic acid supplements.

But in view of what is stated in this article, we should also insist on a healthy lifestyle for men who want to be fathers. Likewise, public measures to address the decline in birth rates must protect people who want to have children. This will not only impact their own well-being, but also that of the citizens of the future.

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Source: The Conversation. Authorship: Guadalupe Rivero Calera Associate Professor of Pharmacology. Faculty of Medicine and Nursing. Research Group: Neuropsychopharmacology, University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. Oihane Martínez-Peula University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

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