Women who consume alcohol during pregnancy may bring negative effects not only to their own baby, but also to the future generations of their family. This is according to the recent findings of the researchers from Binghamton University.
Medical News Today reported that the study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that women's prenatal alcohol exposure elevates the risks of the next three generations in their family to develop alcoholism. The risks may occur even if the mother only drinks a small dose of alcohol.
The researchers examined the link of alcohol exposure during pregnancy to alcohol-related behavior in multiple generations by using pregnant rats. For four consecutive days, the rats were given an equivalent of one glass of wine each day.
The researchers then tested the rats' offsprings for water and alcohol consumption. They found out that those rats whose mothers or grandmothers consumed four glasses of wine during pregnancy have exhibited a preference for alcohol, with altered alcohol sensitivity.
"Our findings show that in the rat, when a mother consumes the equivalent of one glass of wine four times during the pregnancy, her offspring and grand-offspring, up to the third generation, show increased alcohol preference and less sensitivity to alcohol," Dr. Nicole Cameron, lead author of the study told The Daily Mail. "Thus, the offspring are more likely to develop alcoholism."
"This paper is the first to demonstrate trans-generational effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy on alcohol-related behavior in offspring," Cameron added. She said that her team is now focusing on investigating how alcoholism was passed down through the generations.
The recent study is the first research that investigated the effects of alcohol on future generations' behaviors. A past research has studied at the effects of alcohol exposure during pregnancy, however, it is only limited to the fetuses in the womb that are directly exposed to alcohol.
