{"id":12383,"date":"2026-06-11T10:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/?p=12383"},"modified":"2026-06-12T16:56:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:56:35","slug":"fathers-drinking-before-conception-could-harm-childrens-health-new-research-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/fathers-drinking-before-conception-could-harm-childrens-health-new-research-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Father\u2019s Drinking Before Conception Could Harm Children\u2019s Health, New Research Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"Most public health messaging on alcohol and pregnancy focuses on the mother. Yet new research from Texas A&M University shows that paternal alcohol use before conception may leave lasting biological marks on children. Fathers have far more influence than many people assume.<\/p>

Paternal Alcohol Use Alters Biological Signals in Sperm<\/strong><\/p>

Dr Michael Golding is a professor at Texas A&M\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He studies how alcohol changes biological signals in sperm. His work centres on epigenetics. This is the study of how behaviours and environmental factors alter gene expression without changing DNA itself.<\/p>

A new $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) funds the next phase of his research. Golding and his team will examine how paternal alcohol use may predispose children to chronic illness, accelerated ageing and developmental disorders.<\/p>

\u201cWe want to understand how the memory of paternal alcohol exposure transmits to the children and then how it predisposes them to birth defects and chronic disease later in life,\u201d Golding said.<\/p>

When Both Parents Drink, Risks May Compound<\/strong><\/p>

A key question in the new research is whether a father\u2019s drinking before conception worsens outcomes when combined with maternal alcohol use.<\/p>

\u201cIn this phase, we want to see if dad\u2019s drinking interacts with mum\u2019s drinking to make things worse,\u201d Golding said. \u201cDo these things compound and contribute to worse health outcomes over time for their children?\u201d<\/p>

The question matters enormously. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) already affect up to 17 in every 1,000 children in the UK. Many cases go undiagnosed. If paternal alcohol use amplifies those risks, the true toll on child health could be far higher than current figures suggest.<\/p>

Mitochondria at the Centre of the Research<\/strong><\/p>

Golding\u2019s team focuses on mitochondria, the structures inside cells that produce energy. Alcohol-related cellular stress disrupts key molecular signals in sperm. That disruption then impairs mitochondrial function in the child.<\/p>

Researchers link mitochondrial dysfunction to accelerated ageing and chronic conditions such as metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease. Golding offers a simple analogy to explain what this means.<\/p>

\u201cIf your dysfunctional mitochondria represent a flat tyre, you\u2019re basically starting off life with a flat tyre,\u201d he said. \u201cThe question is, how far do you get before the car starts to break down?\u201d<\/p>

The team wants to pinpoint when those early biological disadvantages become measurable health problems across a child\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>

Father\u2019s Drinking Before Conception Is More Harmful Than Once Thought<\/strong><\/p>

Public understanding of prenatal alcohol risk has long centred on the mother. Golding says that framing misses a critical part of the picture.<\/p>

\u201cI think there\u2019s a notion that male alcohol use does not have an impact on the offspring, and that\u2019s completely not true,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know now, even from human clinical studies, that male alcohol use has an adverse effect on child health and development.\u201d<\/p>

The implications are direct. Protecting children from alcohol-related harm must start earlier. Both prospective parents bear responsibility for the health choices they make before conception.<\/p>

Research Points to Broader Environmental Risks<\/strong><\/p>

Paternal alcohol use is the current focus, but Golding sees the work as a gateway to understanding other environmental threats. He wants to know whether microplastics and industrial chemicals leave similar biological imprints on reproductive health.<\/p>

\u201cAlcohol is the easiest place to start because it\u2019s a known bad guy,\u201d Golding said. \u201cMoving into the distant future, once we get this figured out, we would move on and say, do microplastics do the same thing?\u201d<\/p>

The study, supported by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, aims to give scientists the tools to detect developmental risks earlier. The goal is to design targeted interventions and improve long-term outcomes for children affected before birth.<\/p>

(Source: WRD News<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most public health messaging on alcohol and pregnancy focuses on the mother. Yet new research from Texas A&M University shows that paternal alcohol use before conception may leave lasting biological marks on children. Fathers have far more influence than many people assume. Paternal Alcohol Use Alters Biological Signals in Sperm Dr Michael Golding is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fasd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12387,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12383\/revisions\/12387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}