Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Genetic Effects in Progeny from Teen Parental Binge Drinking

The Rockhouse makes no secret of taking an extremely dim view of alcohol and we would not ban it but we sure as hell wouldn't be pushing it like it's the Food of the Gods and, get this, it even has health benefits for your heart.  Even the lamest knuckledragger knows alcohol has broken far more hearts than it's helped ... blah blah blah ...

Regular drinkers probably won't like the article but, if you've been coming here for a while, you know the style and I don't distort anything.  This is what they found and make of it what you will as the source article is always linked.

The punch line is that binge drinking by teens can alter the genetics for their progeny and humans can't be used for experimentation so animal subjects were used but that demonstrated the consequence.  (Science Daily:  Teenage binge drinking can affect brain function of future offspring)

Repeated binge drinking during adolescence can affect brain functions in future generations, potentially putting offspring at risk for such conditions as depression, anxiety, and metabolic disorders, a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study has found.

"Adolescent binge drinking not only is dangerous to the brain development of teenagers, but also may impact the brains of their children," said senior author Toni R. Pak, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

- Science Daily


If you want to start criticizing then probably the first opportunity is with regard to the test subjects.

In the study, one group of adolescent male and female rats was exposed to alcohol in amounts comparable to six binge drinking episodes.  The rats mated after becoming sober and the females remained sober during their pregnancies.  (Thus, any effects on offspring could not be attributed to fetal alcohol syndrome.)  The alcohol-exposed rats were compared to a control group of rats that were not exposed to alcohol.

- Science Daily

If your reaction to that bit was 'we're humans and not bloody rats' then maybe continue reading.

In the offspring of alcohol-exposed rats, researchers examined genes in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in many functions, including reproduction, response to stress, sleep cycles and food intake.  Researchers looked for molecular changes to DNA that would reverse the on-off switches in individual genes.  They found 159 such changes in the offspring of binge-drinking mothers, 93 gene changes in the offspring of binge-drinking fathers and 244 gene changes in the offspring of mothers and fathers who both were exposed to binge drinking.

The study is the first to show a molecular pathway that teenage binge drinking by either parent can cause changes in the neurological health of subsequent generations.

While findings from an animal model do not necessarily translate to humans, there are significant similarities between the study's animal model and humans, including their metabolism of alcohol, the function of the hypothalamus, and the pattern and amount of binge drinking, Pak said.

- Science Daily

For your consideration ... and out of consideration I'll skip the editorial since The Rockhouse position on that evil, soul-sucking substance is already clear.

No comments: