February 3, 2025 • 8 mins
In this episode of Daily Value, we look at how paternal alcohol consumption before conception could influence offspring health, longevity, and even accelerate aging. Referencing studies from Andrology (PMID: 38044754) and Aging and Disease (PMID: 39122451), we examine how sperm RNA modifications and mitochondrial dysfunction may persist long after alcohol cessation—potentially programming offspring for metabolic disorders, reduced NAD+ levels, and faster cellular aging.
Discussion Points:
- Sperm Epigenetics: what rodent data tells us baout alcohol exposure altering small RNAs in sperm, disrupting gene regulation in the developing embryo.
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction: newer rodent data showing lower SIRT1/SIRT3 levels, and lower NAD+ in offspring whose parents were exposed to alcohol.
- Practical Takeaways: How long should alcohol cessation be before conception could help restore sperm quality and reduce the risk of accelerated aging in children for people who drink regularly.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39122451/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38044754/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
We know that what a mother consumes during pregnancy
can have direct and indirectimpacts on fetal outcomes, and
although the same direct impactscan't be said for what the
father consumes, the indirectimpacts may weigh just as
heavily at times.
We're looking into if and howmaternal and paternal alcohol
consumption before conceptioncould influence how quickly your
(00:28):
children age.
Now I'll start out by sayingthat most of the recent work
we're going to go over today isresearch conducted in rodents,
because it's obviously notethical to test interventions
like these in people.
So while these studies may ormay not be translatable to
humans, they do shed some lighton how our behaviors as parents
(00:49):
or potential parents could beaffecting our offspring at the
molecular level and how that maypossibly be affecting their
outcomes later in life.
For years, most of theconversations around alcohol and
pregnancy have focused on themother's role.
We've all heard about fetalalcohol syndrome and the dangers
of drinking during pregnancy,but what if I told you that a
(01:13):
father's drinking habits beforeconception might also have
lasting consequences, and notjust in terms of fertility, but
in shaping how fast your childages and even how healthy they
are later in life?
New research is shedding lighton a hidden consequence of
alcohol use in males and itsability to alter sperm health in
ways that can persist longenough after drinking stops.
(01:35):
Now there was one particularstudy published out of Texas A&M
in the journal Andrology inlate 2023, and the results of
this study had the authorssuggesting that men should
abstain from drinking at leastthree months prior to conceiving
.
What the authors found was thatit takes much longer than
(01:56):
previously believed longer thanone month actually for the
effects of moderate alcoholconsumption to leave a father's
sperm.
Now again, this study wasconducted using an animal model
and extrapolating to humanoutcomes, while using
approximate human equivalentdosing for alcohol consumption
in mice.
It turns out that if you are aregular alcohol consumer, when
(02:18):
you stop drinking, the liver isstill experiencing similar
stress responses from thedrinking time period.
This, in theory, sends a signalthroughout the rest of the male
body that even impacts thereproductive system, essentially
communicating to the body thathey, this environment is very
stressful and we need to helpprogram our children to be able
(02:39):
to adapt to that environment.
Because of this, sperm seems todevelop an adaptation that we
would term maladaptation, inother words, an adaptation that
results in unfavorableconsequences.
In this case, adaptations thata male sperm make might increase
the risk of fetal alcoholsyndrome.
The adaptations I'm referring toare changes to sperm RNA.
(03:02):
When we think about how spermaffects fetal outcomes, we
usually picture DNA being passedfrom one generation to the next
, but sperm do much more thanjust carry genetic material.
They also carry epigeneticinformation, which acts like a
biological instruction manual,if you will, influencing how
genes are turned on or off.
(03:22):
This means that a father'slifestyle, including diet,
stress levels and alcoholconsumption, can influence these
instructions and impact hischild's development.
Changes to sperm RNA can affectan egg and developing fetus,
because sperm carry epigeneticinstructions, not just DNA.
These small RNA molecules helpregulate early embryo
(03:43):
development, influencing whichgenes are turned on or off.
If sperm RNA is altered due tofactors like alcohol exposure,
stress or poor diet, it candisrupt gene expression in the
fertilized egg, potentiallyaffecting fetal growth,
metabolism and long-term health.
These altered signals canpersist throughout development,
(04:03):
increasing the risk of growthabnormalities, metabolic
disorders or accelerated aging,as we see in this study and one
other that I'll touch on shortly.
The concept that paternalalcohol consumption as a
stressor can cause changes tomale physiology that affect a
fetus is not a new concept.
It involves the idea thatenvironmental factors or
stressors, like the stressimposed from alcohol consumption
(04:26):
, can cause changes in anorganism that are then passed
down to subsequent generations.
This is called thetransgenerational effect.
Another study, this onepublished just last year found
that alcohol-exposed fathersagain these are rodents had
higher mitochondrial DNA copynumbers in their sperm, which is
a sign of mitochondrial stressand dysfunction.
(04:48):
Another interesting finding inthis research is how alcohol
affected NAD+, a molecule neededfor energy production and DNA
repair.
Nad+ fuels, sirtuins and PARPenzymes.
These are groups of proteinsthat help regulate metabolism,
inflammation and DNA repair.
When the researchers analyzedalcohol-exposed sperm, they
(05:09):
found lower levels of sirtuin 1and sirtuin 3, increased
oxidative stress, whichcontributes to cellular damage
and faster aging.
This suggests that theoffspring of alcohol-exposed
fathers.
Senescence is a state wherecells stop functioning as usual
(05:49):
and can no longer divide, whichis a hallmark of aging and
age-related diseases.
Next, these offspring hadaltered glucose metabolism,
which means they might be at ahigher risk for
insulin-resistant diabetes andmetabolic syndromes later in
life.
Now we all know that alcoholcan be a driving factor behind a
lot of births in general.
I don't think this research issuggesting that we're
(06:11):
automatically doing our futureoffspring a disservice by having
a drink or two here and there.
What I do think it suggests ismore obvious that our lifestyle
factors impact us at thecellular level and can influence
the health and development ofour offspring at the cellular
level, and can influence thehealth and development of our
offspring at the cellular leveland beyond.
So if we are planning onconceiving, what might be some
(06:31):
wise choices to make?
Well, current research suggeststhat one month of alcohol
cessation might not be enough,since sperm take around 72 days
to fully mature.
A longer period perhaps three,maybe even six months could give
sperm time to recover fromalcohol-induced stress.
The model the researchers usedin the first study I mentioned
(06:52):
to induce this kind of stresssuggests that having three to
four drinks regularly can inducethese negative changes in male
sperm.
You might ask what does drinkingregularly look like?
And fair enough.
The CDC states that regulardrinking is 4 to 14 drinks per
week for men.
As a practical guideline,falling underneath this limit
(07:14):
and then ceasing alcoholconsumption three months prior
to trying to conceive seems likea reasonable recommendation.
So if fatherhood is in yourfuture, now might be the time to
rethink how your lifestylechoices today could affect your
child's health decades from now.
Supporting mitochondrialfunction.
Boosting NAD levels andavoiding alcohol for an extended
(07:35):
period before conception couldmake a lasting impact not just
on your health, but on the nextgeneration.
On the flip side, a drink ortwo here and there is not likely
to have any major impacts, solong as you have your basics
covered, that being adequatemacro and micronutrient intake,
proper sleep, regular exerciseand so on.
(07:56):
That's it for today's episodeof Daily Value.
If you found this discussioninteresting, please share it
with someone who needs to hearit, and don't forget to
subscribe for episodes everyMonday, wednesday and Friday.
Until next time.
Stay sharp, stay informed, stayhealthy.
We know that what a mother consumes during pregnancy
can have direct and indirectimpacts on fetal outcomes, and
although the same direct impactscan't be said for what the
father consumes, the indirectimpacts may weigh just as
heavily at times.
We're looking into if and howmaternal and paternal alcohol
consumption before conceptioncould influence how quickly your
(00:28):
children age.
Now I'll start out by sayingthat most of the recent work
we're going to go over today isresearch conducted in rodents,
because it's obviously notethical to test interventions
like these in people.
So while these studies may ormay not be translatable to
humans, they do shed some lighton how our behaviors as parents
(00:49):
or potential parents could beaffecting our offspring at the
molecular level and how that maypossibly be affecting their
outcomes later in life.
For years, most of theconversations around alcohol and
pregnancy have focused on themother's role.
We've all heard about fetalalcohol syndrome and the dangers
of drinking during pregnancy,but what if I told you that a
(01:13):
father's drinking habits beforeconception might also have
lasting consequences, and notjust in terms of fertility, but
in shaping how fast your childages and even how healthy they
are later in life?
New research is shedding lighton a hidden consequence of
alcohol use in males and itsability to alter sperm health in
ways that can persist longenough after drinking stops.
(01:35):
Now there was one particularstudy published out of Texas A&M
in the journal Andrology inlate 2023, and the results of
this study had the authorssuggesting that men should
abstain from drinking at leastthree months prior to conceiving
.
What the authors found was thatit takes much longer than
(01:56):
previously believed longer thanone month actually for the
effects of moderate alcoholconsumption to leave a father's
sperm.
Now again, this study wasconducted using an animal model
and extrapolating to humanoutcomes, while using
approximate human equivalentdosing for alcohol consumption
in mice.
It turns out that if you are aregular alcohol consumer, when
(02:18):
you stop drinking, the liver isstill experiencing similar
stress responses from thedrinking time period.
This, in theory, sends a signalthroughout the rest of the male
body that even impacts thereproductive system, essentially
communicating to the body thathey, this environment is very
stressful and we need to helpprogram our children to be able
(02:39):
to adapt to that environment.
Because of this, sperm seems todevelop an adaptation that we
would term maladaptation, inother words, an adaptation that
results in unfavorableconsequences.
In this case, adaptations thata male sperm make might increase
the risk of fetal alcoholsyndrome.
The adaptations I'm referring toare changes to sperm RNA.
(03:02):
When we think about how spermaffects fetal outcomes, we
usually picture DNA being passedfrom one generation to the next
, but sperm do much more thanjust carry genetic material.
They also carry epigeneticinformation, which acts like a
biological instruction manual,if you will, influencing how
genes are turned on or off.
(03:22):
This means that a father'slifestyle, including diet,
stress levels and alcoholconsumption, can influence these
instructions and impact hischild's development.
Changes to sperm RNA can affectan egg and developing fetus,
because sperm carry epigeneticinstructions, not just DNA.
These small RNA molecules helpregulate early embryo
(03:43):
development, influencing whichgenes are turned on or off.
If sperm RNA is altered due tofactors like alcohol exposure,
stress or poor diet, it candisrupt gene expression in the
fertilized egg, potentiallyaffecting fetal growth,
metabolism and long-term health.
These altered signals canpersist throughout development,
(04:03):
increasing the risk of growthabnormalities, metabolic
disorders or accelerated aging,as we see in this study and one
other that I'll touch on shortly.
The concept that paternalalcohol consumption as a
stressor can cause changes tomale physiology that affect a
fetus is not a new concept.
It involves the idea thatenvironmental factors or
stressors, like the stressimposed from alcohol consumption
(04:26):
, can cause changes in anorganism that are then passed
down to subsequent generations.
This is called thetransgenerational effect.
Another study, this onepublished just last year found
that alcohol-exposed fathersagain these are rodents had
higher mitochondrial DNA copynumbers in their sperm, which is
a sign of mitochondrial stressand dysfunction.
(04:48):
Another interesting finding inthis research is how alcohol
affected NAD+, a molecule neededfor energy production and DNA
repair.
Nad+ fuels, sirtuins and PARPenzymes.
These are groups of proteinsthat help regulate metabolism,
inflammation and DNA repair.
When the researchers analyzedalcohol-exposed sperm, they
(05:09):
found lower levels of sirtuin 1and sirtuin 3, increased
oxidative stress, whichcontributes to cellular damage
and faster aging.
This suggests that theoffspring of alcohol-exposed
fathers.
Senescence is a state wherecells stop functioning as usual
(05:49):
and can no longer divide, whichis a hallmark of aging and
age-related diseases.
Next, these offspring hadaltered glucose metabolism,
which means they might be at ahigher risk for
insulin-resistant diabetes andmetabolic syndromes later in
life.
Now we all know that alcoholcan be a driving factor behind a
lot of births in general.
I don't think this research issuggesting that we're
(06:11):
automatically doing our futureoffspring a disservice by having
a drink or two here and there.
What I do think it suggests ismore obvious that our lifestyle
factors impact us at thecellular level and can influence
the health and development ofour offspring at the cellular
level, and can influence thehealth and development of our
offspring at the cellular leveland beyond.
So if we are planning onconceiving, what might be some
(06:31):
wise choices to make?
Well, current research suggeststhat one month of alcohol
cessation might not be enough,since sperm take around 72 days
to fully mature.
A longer period perhaps three,maybe even six months could give
sperm time to recover fromalcohol-induced stress.
The model the researchers usedin the first study I mentioned
(06:52):
to induce this kind of stresssuggests that having three to
four drinks regularly can inducethese negative changes in male
sperm.
You might ask what does drinkingregularly look like?
And fair enough.
The CDC states that regulardrinking is 4 to 14 drinks per
week for men.
As a practical guideline,falling underneath this limit
(07:14):
and then ceasing alcoholconsumption three months prior
to trying to conceive seems likea reasonable recommendation.
So if fatherhood is in yourfuture, now might be the time to
rethink how your lifestylechoices today could affect your
child's health decades from now.
Supporting mitochondrialfunction.
Boosting NAD levels andavoiding alcohol for an extended
(07:35):
period before conception couldmake a lasting impact not just
on your health, but on the nextgeneration.
On the flip side, a drink ortwo here and there is not likely
to have any major impacts, solong as you have your basics
covered, that being adequatemacro and micronutrient intake,
proper sleep, regular exerciseand so on.
(07:56):
That's it for today's episodeof Daily Value.
If you found this discussioninteresting, please share it
with someone who needs to hearit, and don't forget to
subscribe for episodes everyMonday, wednesday and Friday.
Until next time.
Stay sharp, stay informed, stayhealthy.
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