(Newswire.net — December 3, 2015) — Doctors always tell women that if they wanted to get pregnant and bring a healthy baby to this world, it would be nice to get rid of some nasty habits like smoking and drinking, or at least reduce them as much as possible. What is also more than welcome is to put off weight, if there is need for that and keep the weight under control before getting pregnant and all the way through the pregnancy.
Finally, for the first time, there is a new study carried out by the scientists at the University of Copenhagen that shows that fathers-to-be also have great responsibility when it comes to their offspring. It is suggested that if men’s lifestyle is unhealthy, it is written in their sperm and therefore could be passed on to their babies. One of the things in focus of this study was obesity.
Having observed sperm specimen of thin and obese men, scientists noticed some major differences in the samples. It appears that part of the genes responsible for the appetite look quite differently and that obesity can be actually transferred to children. The findings of this research should raise the awareness with future fathers, convince them and encourage them to change their behavior if they plan to have children.So the things that have so far applied to women should now apply to men, too. This study is the first example of its kind which shows that obesity could be passed on to children through men, too.The unhealthy life style is one explanation why children who have overweight fathers could become overweight themselves.
One other thing that was observed was whether the sperm changed after the men had gastric band surgery. When the scientists compared the sperm before and after the surgery, they found around 5000 changes in sperm cells. Doctor Roman Barres, an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen says:” It’s only recently that obesity is not an advantage. Only decades ago, the ability to store energy was an advantage to resist infections and famine”.The next step, according to scientists, will be to study embryos produced from sperm of men who have different body weight.
One of the British experts, Professor Wolf Reik, Head of Epigenetics Programme, Babraham Institute said:” In humans, it seems that children of obese men have increased risk of developing obesity themselves as well as of autism spectrum disorder. Hence the finding reported here og epigenetic alteratioins in sperm of obese men is clearly provocative”.
What seems to be unsaid is that everybody should make the effort and try to lead a healthy life regardless of whether they want to have children or not. Children should be additional, not primary reason, because they need their parents to remain healthy long after their birth.