Women who drink alcohol while pregnant increase the risk that the next three generations of their family will succumb to alcoholism.
That’s according to boffins at Binghampton University, New York, who say that even the odd drink while pregnant can affect the genome and epigenome (molecules that control gene translation) to such an extent that the effect can pass through multiple generations.
To test the effects, the scientist gave pregnant rats the equivalent of one glass of vino every day for four days.
Study author Dr Nicole Cameron, explains:
“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.
‘Thus, the offspring are more likely to develop alcoholism.”
The study was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
